To Touch Her Chains
by wundt
Summary: Bordering close to death, Naruto's life was saved by a mysterious voice within his mind. To grow stronger, he discovers the Yondaime's personal notes and strives to learn from them, along with deciphering the legendary Hiraishin technique. However, he's still scarred from his near-death experience, and struggles to cope and lacks trust in others. How will he live in Konoha?
1. The Incident

He was hungry. There wasn't any food in his apartment, and the cardboard box that usually sat in front of his door didn't have enough to feed himself this week. So, he went outside with a pocket full of change. Hopefully he could scrounge himself a meal. It was unlikely, however, and the boy knew that. Still, it couldn't hurt to at least try…could it?

He looked around while walking on the empty streets. It was late and a lot of stores were beginning to close. The blond knew which stores he couldn't enter. He could tell from the stern faces of the owners: that they didn't want him there. So, naturally, the boy complied to their implicitly stated wishes and searched elsewhere.

At first, it confused the boy why _he_ was the one that was always isolated from the crowd. Why _him_, amongst hundreds of other children his age? Why him, when he was strictly focusing on his _own_ life, trying to survive? These questions have remained unanswered for the longest he could remember, and it occasionally irked him. He gradually grew tolerant to this life most of the time, however. It became normal. Now, he usually changed his direction to avoid unnecessary conflict.

That didn't stop _other _people from approaching _him_, though.

"Hey, you."

A low, rough voice came from behind the boy.

"_**Run, N͟͏̕͠a̶̶͢_̶͢͝ŕ͟t̵͝#̶̕͘#̴͏O̷̵̸҉ before—"**_

The boy barely registered the second fainter, almost distorted voice as he quickened his pace. Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough, and a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and forcefully turned him to bring him eye to eye with the man who called out to him. The man's face was covered behind an opaque white mask…odd.

"Finally, you piece of shit. I found him! OVER HERE!" The man shouted to seemingly nowhere. However, in the next few moments, several more figures showed up and surrounded the boy and his assailant.

"H-how can I help—?" The boy stumbled on his words while he was internally trying to assess the situation. There were around eight to ten people in total, all masked. Their intimidating aura was suffocating, especially to the boy that was at the center of it.

The next moment, before the boy could process anything else, the setting changed almost instantly. Instead of the empty street, he was now in a clearing in what appeared to be the forest. The man that grabbed him still had a firm grip on his shoulder. Naturally, his grip was becoming tighter and more painful as the boy tried to struggle.

"You piece of shit," the man spat as he hurled the boy on to the ground, letting him bounce a couple times. "We're going to make history. We'll be praised as heroes. You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment."

The man let out a maniacal laughter. Slowly, the other figures slowly popped into the clearing one by one… but this time, they had weapons. The boy was quivering, as he saw their brandished swords, knives, and other weapons he couldn't even begin to describe. He knew that if he let this continue, the outcome would be far more than painful.

So, the boy struggled as he turned onto his stomach, and then tried crawling towards the forest to get out of the clearing.

"Watch it, you demon," the man snarled.

As the boy's hand was grasping for the ground in front of him, there was a sudden agonizing sensation. He looked at his hand and saw there was a spear protruding from it, as red started to seep from where the blade connected to his hand. He could feel a numbing sensation that quickly turned into stinging throughout his whole body, and he realized that there was electricity emanating from the spear. The boy, still in mental shock of the situation, couldn't even gasp from the pain he was experiencing. He pulled out the spear with his free hand through sheer willpower but immediately regretted it as blood started leaking immediately.

"What, no response? I've been hoping for this opportunity to come… COME ON, SCREAM OR SOMETHING," the same man shouted, as some cheers could be heard in the distant background.

A foot stomped on the boys back, and he felt his rib cage crush into his lungs. There was an audible crunch. The boy intensely gasped and coughed for air, but he couldn't. The sound of his attempted breathing was wet and heavily out of rhythm as he began regurgitating and swallowing back his own blood. Despite this, the boy never screamed, nor did he cry. He was just focusing on his being, right now. How could he get out of this? Were there any nearby ninja that could help? Why were these people after him? Why was he labeled a 'demon' a slight moment ago? Did they hate him that much, to potentially kill him? _Are_ they going to kill him?

Some of those questions were answered, as one member of the onlooking masked figures cheered, "Kill him already! I want to go home. I can finally sleep tonight knowing this monster's off the streets."

There were multiple voices and a chorus of agreement from various other figures.

"Shut up. Let me enjoy this. I'll never forget what that fox did on that night…I won't forgive that thing…to think it was so stupid to turn into this retarded midget. Look—he can't even open his eyes! He's blinded by his own blood!" he yelled and laughed hysterically in between his sentences. "He's so weak…come on, _move_. Struggle _more_. I'll show you the pain we all felt on that day…NOW GET UP." The man shouted as he kicked the boy's body against a tree.

The tree made a loud crunch as the boy's body impacted against it and was followed by a dull thump as it met the ground facedown. Now, all sensation of his body was lost. The only thing the boy could feel was his own heartbeat, and it was ringing obnoxiously in his ears. He could barely hear the man anymore, but he expected that the man was still probably trying to get a reaction out of the boy. Unfortunately, the boy wasn't even capable of making a comprehensible response. His throat was crushed, and his vision was flickering from the lack of blood. At this point, he was simply struggling to keep his sanity together. He couldn't afford to pass out now, otherwise it would completely ensure his own death. Even if his existence was scrutinized by everyone for no apparent reason, the boy _still_ had the will to live. Although, right now, he was bordering the line to let that will go. He was lucky the masked group was giving him the option to even contemplate this for the time being.

His thoughts paused as he received another kick to his chest. Another, and another. Another, but this time to his face. Again, but this time was his shoulder, which was likely dislocated as a result—not that it mattered, of course. Different figures from the group took turns getting their work in to hitting the boy. Some even had their fun by slashing him with their weapons. Some of them verbally assaulted the boy to try to get a reaction from him, entertaining and pleasuring themselves by doing so.

"Demon—"

"You deserve death—"

"Bring them back—"

"Stop pretending to be a child—"

"Why are you allowed to live—"

"Die, fox—"

"I hope I never see your face again—"

"You're just a monster."

The insults and intents to kill were becoming repetitive during the moments when the boy's ears occasionally cleared to discern the words directed at him. Yes, everything was becoming repetitive. The hate, pain, the sound of his own heart throbbing in his ears… he wished it would all stop. He wished he could just sleep. He wanted to be in the comfort of his own solitude, away from the pain.

"_**Do̵͜n't g̷̨͡͞į̴҉͟X̶̴̷҉͏e̶͝͏̧͘ ̵͞u̸p#͢͜#҉͟͜#̶̛̛́͝#̨͟. ̛ù̵̷p.͢͟͜ ̨I̸*̴̡ ͢͠b̡e̢l͏̢#e̕v̷̀̀ę ͘ì̕n̡͞ ͜͝y̛͘oứ͝"**_

A sound overpowered the pain and his throbbing heartbeats for a the briefest of moments. He couldn't really make out the words of the voice, but he could feel the intent behind them. How could they say that, though? To not give up? In this situation? Who would _not_ in the boy's position? The boy questioned himself, before coming to a decision.

"_**҉Y̴ȩs,,̢̨͏ ̛e͘ņ͝d̶͞ų̶͟ŕ̶e̶҉.̸̕."**_

The clearing grew quiet. Why? Because one of the men that took their time brutally assaulting the boy had a glowing chain impaled through his head. The masked figures were probably asking themselves how a chain could spontaneously appear from nothing. As they traced the chain back to its origin, they noticed it was connected to the boy's exposed back. Realizing this, the crowd grew wary, but they grew even more furious at the same time. The initial attacker stepped forward.

"You piece OF SHI—"

This was interesting to the boy. Despite his battered and disoriented condition, he could still _feel_ where the man was…as if whatever was extruding from his body was an extension of his senses. The moment he could _feel_ the other man speak, he knew where to aim, and somehow made _contact_ with the source of the sound. The silence following the contact was appreciated by the boy's recovering hearing.

As he felt a moment of peace, he opened one of his bloodied eyes and tried to peer through the swollen slits. He could discern a blurry glowing line…that connected to one of the masked figure's head. Taken aback, he opened both eyes, and clearly saw that the man's throat was speared through with what appeared to be a bladed edge on the tip of a chain. The boy's eyes followed the chain down to his body to see that the chain came from _his own body_. That was a surprise.

The surrounding figures were surprised too, but quickly reaffirmed their situation. Some of them began to weave hand seals as they were preparing a jutsu to fire at the boy, as they felt that this has gone on for long enough and were scared at what the boy could potentially do to them next. Some of them let out war cries as they began to charge at the boy with their weapons.

However, the cries stopped, as the boy felt several more figures appearing in the clearing. Unfortunately, the boy couldn't even respond to the new presences. Realizing he was losing consciousness, he desperately tried to move out of the clearing in a final effort, the boy lost too much blood to carry himself any longer. He at least tried… that was good enough for him, right?

Before his mind completely drifted away, he heard a voice that was shouting his name. He couldn't tell if this one was coming from inside his head, or one that's actually in front of him. Either way, it wouldn't matter soon. He did catch a glimpse of a slightly different white mask in front of him, however.

⁂

The boy, Uzumaki Naruto, was focusing on his breathing with his eyes closed. He didn't know how to feel. He accepted his own death the last he could remember, yet here he was: the present. Assumed present, that is—he wasn't even sure if what occurred was even real. His assailants were shinobi…right? The man that grabbed him definitely targeted him in particular and organized a lynch to do so. They were professional, until the physical torture began. At that point, his life was being toyed with. He realized he was unwanted by everyone, but he never expected anyone wanted him _dead_.

Naruto was aching and in pain. Once he finally regained senses of his muscles, he allowed himself to open his eyes. His vision could barely focus onto anything and he deduced that he was heavily sedated not long ago. The boy recognized the familiar set of white tiles which formed the ceiling and he realized that he was in a hospital bed. He looked to one side and could make out many drip bags connected to his arm, to his mild annoyance. He tried sitting up but immediately regretted it as a searing pain spiked in his chest soon after. Right now, there were too many questions in his head to make sense of the situation, and Naruto was breathing rapidly as his mind raced. He felt nauseous from the smell of the linoleum floors, the obnoxiously white lights, the slight tingle in his throat from the urge to vomit. There wasn't long to sort out himself out before a voice interrupted.

"Naruto, calm down," a commanding voice echoed the room.

His head cleared. The aforementioned boy tilted his head to the other side to meet the gaze of the source of the voice. A familiar white bearded, wrinkled old man was in his presence. Or, in proper speak, the boy was in the old man's presence. Many would recognize this "old man" as the leader of the village: the Sandaime Hokage, and the boy's personal benefactor. He was admirable, stern, and confident. Yet currently, through the boy's eyes, he would not use any of those words to describe him as of this moment. The sight of the old man with his signature hat off and worried expression warped that strong, reputable image.

"Naruto. I am sorry. You should not have been in that situation at all. I overloo—"

"What happened?" Naruto's voice croaked, surprising both of them.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes slightly widened. Not at being interrupted, but more in surprise at the straightforwardness of the boy's question. He expected panic, fear, or some visible sign of trauma. He didn't expect the cold straight face that was on Naruto. He saw the same face that many trained shinobi would wear to hide their internal struggle and conflict. It pained Hiruzen even more to see this boy, who wasn't even a ninja, try hide his emotions to this degree. However, years of experience in the political realm allowed Hiruzen to truly see the panic in the boy's demeanor, and that saddened him immeasurably more. Despite this, Hiruzen maintained his professional demeanor and addressed the boy's question.

"…You were attacked by chūnin pretending to be ANBU. They somehow made their own masks and maneuvered around the usual patrol," the old man responded with an apologetic tone. "The patrolling ANBU should have stopped this before it was even planned. This must have been an internal breach. We're currently investi—"

"Why?" Naruto simply asked.

Both the interruption and question were expected this time.

"…I'm afraid I can't answer that, my boy," the old man let out with a sigh.

"Is this about this…_fox_?"

There was visible surprise and slight pause in the Hokage's eyes and expression, until a calm and resigned demeanor settled on his face soon after. His eyes closed as if contemplating something, and then opened a moment later as if he reached a conclusion.

"Naruto."

The boy instinctively tried to straighten his back at the abrupt commanding tone, but winced as he failed to do so. After a moment of sorting himself out, Hiruzen continued.

"You are the container of the Kyūbi: the Nine-Tailed Fox that attacked this village seven years ago."

Another pregnant pause to let the words hang in the air. Naruto simply looked at the old man blankly, completely still.

"This does not mean that you _are_ the demon. You are simply the container. This does not change anything. You are still _you_."

Now it was Naruto's turn to look surprised. He was aware of the attack on Konoha many years ago, but he never thought to associate an insane event like _that_ to the source of all the hate towards _him_. However, everything slowly fell into place, and realization gradually grew apparent on the boy's face. He really didn't know how to respond to this. After a brief silence to let him further digest the information, the old man continued.

"This is classified information. You weren't supposed to be aware of this until you grew much older. I suppose after this incident, though, it's only fair you should at least know," the Hokage said, "I'm afraid I can't divulge anymore than that, however. Please accept it as it is."

Naruto was about to ask several questions to clarify things, but the last sentence from the old man shut everything down. Why was the demon fox in _him_ in particular? He heard several legends of the Yondaime Hokage honourably sacrificing himself to _kill_ the fox, so why wasn't it _dead_? If the information was classified, how does everyone somehow _know_ and consequently ostracize _him_ when he was told he _wasn't_ the 'demon fox'?

Various thoughts clashed together, and several memories of shame and instances of hate towards him surfaced. Attempted arson on his apartment when he first moved in from the orphanage, being barred from open shops, being _glared_ _at _in the streets. He could try make sense of it, but Naruto couldn't fathom how _petty_ the treatment was. Yet, for some reason, he couldn't be upset at them.

"So…what do I do now? People will try to kill me? I just live like this?" Naruto questioned, with a slight waver in his voice.

"As for that, I believe the best option is for you to enter the Ninja Academy. There, you can learn how to properly defend yourself, and you should be secure in the classroom. I'll make sure of it. Once you graduate, people will think twice before fighting a fully-fledged ninja. This problem will never happen in the future, Naruto. Trust me," the old man said firmly, never breaking eye contact with the boy.

However, Naruto was still in a state of paranoia despite his forced, calm outward appearance. He didn't want to be under that stress again. He didn't want to come to accept death a second time. If the Hokage himself overlooked the upbringing of his assassination, who's to say it wouldn't happen a second time? So, Naruto thought about the proposition deeply.

Ninja Academy. He contemplated being a ninja once, when he saw the occasional shinobi flicker in and out of sight from the streets. It was intriguing to see them stealthily maneuver in the shadows, beneath the public eye. He wanted to mimic that; that way, he could hide from them: those scrutinizing, hateful eyes. However, he quickly realized he had _nobody_ to guide him through the process. It seemed almost all capable shinobi came from a background with deep heritage in the art. Naruto didn't have anything like that; he had no clan, no friends, no parents. It's true that he could learn a few things at the Academy, but could he excel? Could he be good enough to fight against another lynch from a mob of supposed chūnin?

"_**À̶c̢͘c͡è̛̛p̀t.͘"**_

Naruto was startled but showed no indication of it. This voice, he remembered, was the same one that guided him through the attack on his life. He felt that this voice was gave him the push needed to cling onto his life. More of the incident flooded his memories, and he recalled the instance when it first spoke to him. Perhaps, without its encouragement at the time, he wouldn't even be alive. There were even more questions popping into his head from this new information, but now was not the time to reflect. Naruto cleared his mind and looked at everything realistically without the paranoia and intense thought.

He considered his options. There were certainly no _real_ disadvantages to enrolling in the Academy, and he felt inclined to heed to the voice's wishes. There may be minor inconveniences, but Naruto was sure they would weigh less than the inconveniences of going to _regular_ school.

There was a realization that he was unresponsive for a few minutes, and Naruto looked at the old man's face with caution. The Hokage was simply observing the boy, patiently expecting an answer. The boy then broke the silence.

"…I accept."

"That's good. But before that, it is tradition to ask three requirements to any aspiring shinobi entering the Academy," the Hokage explained. The statement was met with confusion from the boy, as if he expected an elaboration. The old man saw this and continued, "One: love the village and hope to help preserve peace and prosperity. Two: have a mind that will not yield and be able to endure hard training and work. And finally, three: be healthy in mind and body."

As he finished, Naruto looked at the Hokage with even more confusion. How ironic was it, to ask those questions when he was in such a crippled state? Rather, even if he recovered, could Naruto really follow those requirements? How could he love the village, when the village wanted him dead? He didn't think too long on this, however, as Naruto understood that this was merely a formality to enter the Academy. Certainly, not everyone could adhere to those requirements…right? So, his response to the questions was a simple nod.

Hiruzen observed Naruto carefully and sighed. He didn't expect Naruto to take to these requirements personally—in fact, hardly _anyone_ entering took the requirements seriously, as they _supposedly_ came naturally. However, as stoic and blank the expression on Naruto's face may be, he could not hide from the eyes of Hiruzen. The Hokage had experience picking apart emotions; he could discern the emotions of _any_ seasoned shinobi if he so desired—as good as any Yamanaka, he would say. Hiruzen could easily tell that Naruto didn't view this village as his home, and that he didn't love it like any average citizen would. This hurt the old man's heart, and he felt that he failed a certain someone's legacy. Even so, he would try to help Naruto learn to love Konoha and protect it as his home. Hiruzen hoped Naruto would. No, Naruto _had _to.

"Well, you don't have to think too hard about it now, as you have a few months before you can enroll. You should take this time to recover and rest. Again, don't think too much of what's inside you Naruto. You are _not_ the demon, as many of the civilians may think," the old man assured the boy.

The Hokage left his seat, and Naruto felt a wave of tiredness wash over him. He barely even registered what the old man said to him. The influx of information of the situation didn't help ease his worries at all. However, he was certain of one thing: he had to get strong. He couldn't simply accept unsolicited abuse and expect to walk it off every time. His passive attitude would have to change. He couldn't ignore the village and the village can't ignore him. His ideal will never be met without work. So, he had to train, and make the most of the old man's offer. For now, however, the boy let his tiredness take control. He would act later.

⁂

Miraculously, Naruto fully recovered within two weeks of his stay at the hospital, despite the several near-lethal injuries he sustained from the incident. The doctors were appalled by the development and were reluctant to release him so early, but the boy's medical checkups and attempted escapes from his room convinced them that he was healthy. There were instructions from the nurses on how to take care of his body after surgery, but Naruto didn't pay attention to them, as the instructions felt half-hearted. He himself was curious about the fast recovery process but didn't really question it much. He had other, far more important things to worry about after all.

He needed answers. Answers that the old man would not tell him.

Currently, Naruto was about to enter the private library, inaccessible to the general public and apparently, the average shinobi as well. He was aware of this place only by eavesdropping from librarians in the public library. Naruto entered by evading attention in the standard library, then maneuvered his way into the closed off areas by observing the occasional chūnin's patrol patterns. It was fairly easy, but still took some careful observation. After that, he noticed a door that was suspiciously out of place. At a glance, it was just like any door, but he could feel some sort of _energy_ from it—he couldn't quite explain it. Regardless, he took the opportunity when the chūnin was out of sight to discreetly open the door. At first, there was a slight panic as he heard a subtle hissing noise, but it immediately died down. He then entered the dark room and went to work.

After some more maneuvering, the boy then settled himself in between a candle-lit corridor of bookshelves. There was a stack of books relevant to his curiosity at his sides. It took hours of searching, but he managed. There were several failed attempts after sifting through random stories such as one about a giant toad battling giant snakes, a rabbit goddess descending onto earth and becoming human, and a weird story about how the moon was _lifted_ from the earth itself by one single man—absolutely insanity. Despite this, he did find some relevant books regarding his questions.

The attack of the _Kyūbi_.

The same Kyūbi that was inside Naruto as soon as he was born, apparently, as he had no other memory of his life being any different. At first it was worrying, but the Hokage's words kept reverberating through his head. He was _not_ the Kyūbi. That still didn't mean that he couldn't be influenced by it, somehow. That was probably the most frightening thought—how could he verify that claim? He was already hearing voices in his head…so what if—

"_**D̕͝҉ë҉̨̨̀N̨̕͞t̴̴͜͝ ́͜͜c̴͜͢͠ơ͘̕҉̸M̢҉̧͠҉A̡̢͞R̵͜͞͝͝E͢͡͝ ̴̷̸̡̀t̴͏҉̧͢Ḩ̡̨́͘A̵̧̡͜͠ ̶̛̛͘1̵̨$̶̴̡͟θ̸̷͝͝#̸̢̕͝x͟͡͠å̀͞ ̢͘͜F̛͟í̶̷Ó͢͠͞X̕͟"**_

Naruto's ears popped. Clearly, whatever he was just thinking wasn't taken kindly to whatever entity that was somehow in his head. There were no comprehensible words heard—just plain noise, in fact—but the boy could still understand the _intent_ of them. The voice's reoccurrence, however, confirmed that what he heard during that incident and meeting with the Hokage _wasn't_ simply him being delusional—or, maybe he never exited the delusion yet…who knows?

Regardless, this voice has helped him in a time of need during the incident, so for now, he would investigate it later. It wasn't the immediate concern, despite how troubling it may be. He wasn't really in a position to _talk_ to the voice, after all. However, this still posed the question about the Kyūbi itself.

Obviously, it wasn't dead as the legends made it out to be. The Yondaime died to seal it inside Naruto's_ own body_. The boy managed to scrounge into the deepest of shelves to find a book on the beast. It was interesting; apparently the Kyūbi wasn't the _only_ demon feared across the hidden villages. It was classified as a _bijū_, a Tailed Beast, and there seemed to be other demons similar to it, but with differing number of tails. There were nine bijū in total, with the Kyūbi having the most tails. Perhaps the number of tails signified the level of power, in a way?

As Naruto flipped through the pages, he noticed that each demon in the book was accompanied with an ink illustration with a following description of their abilities and lore. Apparently, at one point, the Shodai Hokage had all the bijū in his possession but then gave each reigning hidden shinobi village of the time one or two bijū as a sign of respect and equality. It seemed like it was an attempt at peace, as naïve as the gesture seemed. Reading more from this information, it was a surprise to Naruto to find that sealing a bijū within a human being wasn't an uncommon practice, and that there were _several_ people that underwent the process. There was even a formal term for those individuals: _Jinchūriki_. He wasn't alone in the sense that he contained a demon, and Naruto found small comfort in that.

What shocked Naruto _further_ was that he wasn't the only container of the _Kyūbi_ specifically. There were others before him, and the containers were traditionally in Konoha—

"_**Ca͘͟r͟e̶̷̡f̀́u̶̶l̛͞.̢̡̛**__**"**_

He didn't even process the voice this time but instantly heeded the intention. The boy swiftly snuffed the candle and pulled himself and his books out of site from the door. Within his own curiosity, he nearly forgot about the patrolling chūnin at the door. He held his breath and willed his presence to be as small as possible, hoping to somehow disappear entirely. Naruto's efforts may have worked or was entirely lucky, but the patrolling chūnin closed the door and Naruto could hear footsteps waning in the background, as if the ninja was walking away.

Still suspicious, Naruto strained his ears to the best he could and was surprised at the extent to which he could hear. He was sure his hearing wasn't this good before. It was like an entirely new world, and he could hear just as much _outside_ of the room as he could inside. Unfortunately, _inside_ the room, there were subtle yet distinct footsteps that Naruto couldn't really tell whom it belonged to. He definitely _heard_ the chūnin leave, but there may have been another person that entered…or even scarier, was inside all along. However, Naruto noted that these footsteps were _off_ somehow, like they were out too of rhythm to be labeled human.

Naruto didn't have time to think about this. To cut his research project short, or continue? Naruto decided on the former. This was not to say he wasn't _not _going to take a book along with him—after this infiltration, he was going to get something out of this. It was a shame, but he put the books away in random shelves and almost instinctively kept the book he was saving for last: the autobiography of the Yondaime Hokage. He could only manage to escape with one book, and this was the one; a book written by Minato Namikaze, the man who sealed the demon inside of Naruto, sacrificing himself to do so. Naruto wanted to know everything about him and possibly discover why it was _Naruto_ of all people to contain the Kyūbi.

Quietly, Naruto maneuvered his steps around the other footsteps he could hear, as to keep his distance from whomever the odd person was. He was at the door before he froze in place. His own heartbeat was pounding in his ears as he _felt_ eyes on his back. He could have sworn that the footsteps were heading towards the _other_ side of the room, and Naruto cursed himself for trying to escape so soon. He turned his head slowly and immediately caught his gasp before it came out.

A pair of glowing, orange eyes with horizontal slits met with his. The body of whatever creature the eyes belonged to was hidden in the shadows, and he couldn't directly identify what it was.

Fortunately for Naruto, this wasn't a chūnin. Unfortunately, this wasn't even a human being, and he felt he was wasted his chance to discover more books. Regardless, Naruto took this opportunity to escape, as his head was nearly buckling under the suspense of almost being caught. He exited the door and could have sworn he heard a light _pop_ as he left. He strained his ears again and couldn't hear anything inside the room.

Pushing this odd situation aside, he made his way to leave the library. He wanted out as soon as possible. This day was intense. Naruto wasn't sure if he could do anything like this again. He knew, however, that if he wanted to be a ninja, adventures like these were necessary.

⁂

In his apartment, late at night, the boy was staring intently at a book. It had been hours since he initially flipped through the entire book, absorbing all its contents. Yet, the boy was still staring at the cover of the book, trying to sort his feelings and thoughts towards it.

Frankly, Naruto was mildly upset. No, actually, he was outright annoyed. The book he snagged so painstakingly close to risk being caught with was a disappointment. The first few pages were interesting, sure, but there wasn't anything in there which was anything different from the gossip and rumours of the Yondaime back in the orphanage. Accomplishments in the Third Shinobi War, duties as the Fourth Hokage, various political feats. Everything written in the book seemed so basic that it felt like the autobiography wasn't even written by Minato Namikaze himself! It's as if another person wrote everything in his place! It was interesting, sure, but not what he wanted.

What annoyed Naruto further, however, was that there were several blank pages in the book. What was the purpose of this? To waste his time? Because, if that was the intention, the Yondaime surely accomplished that, and Naruto certainly didn't appreciate that one bit. Really, Naruto wasn't sure what he was expecting. He sighed and laid down on his bed, stretching. He reflected on what his next steps should be.

Obviously, the book wouldn't contain any information on the Kyūbi attack. From Naruto's understanding, the attack on the village was spontaneous and the Yondaime _died_, so naturally there wouldn't be any information about it in his autobiography. However, what Naruto really wanted to learn about was _how_ the Yondaime sealed the Kyūbi inside of him. To seal a demon—one that was supposedly the most powerful of all bijū, no less—was an amazing feat. This topic garnered great interest in the boy. _Fūinjutsu_.

An idea struck the boy, and he felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner. _Seals_, of course. Naturally, the now-deceased seal master of Konoha would have used seals. Naruto sat up and stared at the book with a new perspective. He was a complete novice in seals, and had no experience in reading them, apart from recognizing the distinct red-bordered explosive tag, flash bomb, or smoke bomb. They were common since they were in such heavy demand, so almost all ninja supply stores had them in stock—not that Naruto could buy any, of course. Regardless, the boy had no idea where to even _begin_ to crack any barrier seals in the book, if there were any in there to begin with.

_**"T̢ak̕e a ͘lǫơk̛.̡"**_

There it was again. That voice. All the times the voice spoke were in times of urgency, like on the day of the incident when the boy was about to die. Another time was during his confrontation with the Hokage, when he was in a heavily sedated state. And finally, was during the library, when if he were to get caught caught reading let alone _steal_ one of the restricted books, no doubt the boy would get lynched _again_. The voice always popped up in his head spontaneously, yet in perfectly timed moments. However, this time, Naruto half-expected it. This time, the voice was clear, less distorted. He also noticed it sounded oddly feminine. He could clearly hear the sound of the words instead of having to interpret the meaning behind them.

"…Hello? Who are you?"

No response. Again, this was half-expected by Naruto. Sighing, he simply heeded the words and opened the book. To his shock, the previously blank pages were now full. In fact, it seemed that the whole book itself was rewritten; there was no trace of the prior contents left. Naruto could barely contain his excitement and wonder at what had just happened.

"Thank you, whatever you are," he murmured, expecting the voice to somehow to hear him like he instinctively knew it had.

Naruto's eyes scanned through the pages with newfound curiosity and discovered a list of various notes and entries which were sorted by what seemed to be the date. Rather than a biography, the book now resembled a personal journal of the Yondaime. It was slightly overwhelming, but the boy decided to read the book again from the beginning.

He started from the notes when Minato Namikaze entered the Academy himself.

⁂

A week passed after the discovery of the personal journal of the Yondaime, and Naruto was currently on a trip to scout out a specific training ground the former Hokage presumably trained in up until his jōnin promotion. The personal notes were pleasantly useful to read for Naruto, who knew absolutely nothing on how to be a shinobi. Without a clan background, he was at a disadvantage compared to his future peers. So, Naruto was especially grateful to himself for risking entrance to the library and the voice for allowing him to _somehow_ break past the seals on the book. Because of the effort and trouble to find and read the book, Naruto was sure to make the knowledge from the book as lucrative as possible.

He left the journal back in his apartment as to not risk damaging or losing it along the trip. It was unnecessary to bring the book along regardless, since the boy memorized all the information pertaining to him at the moment. The book itself was absolutely dense with information, and it somehow packaged the entire shinobi career of the Yondaime up until his inauguration for Hokage. It still amazed Naruto how ingenious it was for the former Hokage to use seals to hide the pages as an initial barrier, then layer it with storage seals to summon more pages of notes. However, it didn't stop just there—no, that would be too simple—the stored notes were _also _storage seals masked with even _more_ seals hiding the contents. Without his random ability to somehow break through these seals (which he guessed was the voice's influence), Naruto definitely wouldn't have been able to access the final layers. There seemed to be a hierarchy in the level of information: the more advanced the technique, the farther down the chain it is stored. Unfortunately, the deeper notes contained various jutsu and shinobi techniques that were far beyond the boy's capabilities to even understand, so Naruto stuck with reading the surface level techniques. Not to diminish the surface notes, obviously. After all, without them, he wouldn't even know about the training ground he was venturing towards.

However, as Naruto walked along the vague path in the deep forest, he was beginning to doubt his memory of the map of the forest in the notes. Perhaps he should have made a copy of it, in hindsight. He foolishly realized that solely relying on the path was an obvious mistake as it completely vanished and was now navigating through mental approximations of distances. Eventually, he noticed a trend of the trees becoming thicker as he followed the path, so he decided to risk follow the thickening trees. At this point he had no clue where to go.

Naruto was mildly surprised when he stepped around a tree to find himself in an open clearing surrounded by trees. In the center was a _giant_ tree stump embedded in the side of a rocky hill. There seemed to be an entrance carved into the side of it.

"No way… that can't be it, can it?" Naruto questioned to himself aloud.

Slowly, he approached the entrance, wary of any traps or seals. Once he stepped foot at the entrance, Naruto peered inside. What he saw astonished him.

There were _hundreds_ of wooden dummies set up across the dirt ground of what seemed to be a giant underground arena. Naruto discerned that there appeared to be a variety in them, however. Most of them were the classic static totems with wooden protrusions that Naruto expected to see…if the protrusions weren't barbed with spikes. Some of the dummies were grotesquely humanoid shaped with heavily exaggerated features; each one seemed to have disturbingly intricate, unique carvings of demon faces on their heads. Lastly, there were six significantly larger dummies against the walls…if they could even be called "dummies". These "dummies" were tall and _huge_ in the fact that they were…well, fat. They all resembled monks in a way with each of them being bald and robed. Their faces differed in emotion between what seemed to be happiness, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and surprise. It was intimidating, having them all stare at him whilst in the center of the arena.

The Yondaime's book mentioned that there were a few training dummies that were good to train physical fitness, but this wasn't just _a few_—this was insanity! Overcoming the shock of the sight, Naruto walked farther in to observe more of the arena, wondering how on earth he was supposed to train with these "dummies". At the far back, Naruto noticed a noticeably large wooden statue standing on a tall podium that blended in with the wall. Looking carefully, he realized the face was the Shodai Hokage's, which he recognized from seeing the same face on the Hokage monument nearly everyday. The statue held its hands in which Naruto correctly associated to be the Ram seal.

He wanted to continue observing, but suddenly the Shodai statue's eyes glowed. Naruto was startled as the arena began to shake violently, and he noticed all the humanoid dummies began whirring and coming to life. He assumed they would be rooted into place, but they started _moving _towards him, much to his shock and fear. Now, they were behaving like automatons, minus the mechanical gears and machinery. No, these things felt as if they were _alive_. Panicking, the boy attempted to take a step back to run away, only to pause as he saw something.

A glint.

One long blade in the center, with two shorter blades near the handle pointing outward. The handle itself had vague writing on it. Of course, Naruto would recognize the Yondaime's signature kunai. The kunai itself wasn't important, but that seal on the handle definitely was. After all, it was they key to the Hiraishin, a legendary technique that was a foundation of the legacy of Minato Namikaze. Naruto wanted it badly. Unfortunately for him, it was embedded in the ceiling…right above the Shodai statue's head…at the back of the arena…behind the army of dummies that were charging at him _right now_. The boy glanced back down to consider tanking through the dummies and climb the statue to grab the kunai, but quickly dismissed the idea.

"…Shit."

Amidst the slight hesitation, Naruto overlooked one of the demon-like dummies (which he internally dubbed the _oni_) that came in too close for comfort. It slashed at him with its clawed hands, and Naruto appropriately rolled forward to dodge with a slight graze. He doubted he could run to the entrance to escape anymore—it was too late for that. Naruto glanced at the _oni_ and was intimidated by the wicked face with teeth pointing in almost every direction. The demonic eyes had a slight glow to them as it began to try another attempt to slash the boy.

In hindsight, Naruto shouldn't have walked so far in.

If that wasn't enough stress, however, one of the monk-like figures (which he dubbed the _Sōryo_) _leaped_ towards him, shaking the entire arena as it landed. The sheer power of the landing was enough to cause Naruto to hold his breath, completely intimidated. The appearance didn't help either: it was oddly reminiscent of a very, very large toddler with its morbidly happy features on its face. The Sōryo jumped again, with Naruto at the destination of its landing. Panic set in, as Naruto jumped backwards, only to gasp out in pain as he felt the barbs from the stationary dummy. Stuck, Naruto could only stare at the impossibly stretched, mocking smile on the Sōryo's face. It looked as if it was pleased that it was going to liquify the boy beneath its feat. Naruto could hear his own heart thumping wildly, drowning out the footsteps of the other Oni dummies. Time slowed as he stared intently at the smiling face, wondering if his death was going to come for real this time. He closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to embrace the impact.

He waited.

"_**Y͜ou̷'͝re ̀safe̴. D́o̢n'́t̷ wor̡ry."**_

Soothing voice spoke sweet.  
His heart calmed, tension easing.  
Lids part, to see chains.

The same chains that saved his life once before. They came back to do it yet again. Naruto stared wide-eyed at the Sōryo, which was suspended in the air by two chains impaling its shoulders. He noticed that the spiked dummy from behind him was ripped out of the ground, away from his back. His eyes followed down the chains to once again discover it protruding from his own body.

His admiration for the chains was interrupted by a slight twitch of the Sōryo. Naruto almost instinctively willed the chains to move, flinging the giant wooden figure at the nearest group of approaching Oni, knocking them all off balance. He was shocked at how _natural_ that technique felt.

Getting used to flirting with death, Naruto focused on the current objective at hand. The sensible part of his mind told him to immediately use this opportunity to escape…but of course, his ego was telling him to use his new power to get what he sought his eyes on: the tri-pronged kunai. He looked above the Shodai statue's head and saw it glint in the cave light, still embedded on the ceiling. With new confidence in his chains, he tried reaching to simply pluck it out, only to be disappointed by the limited reach—the kunai was still so far away.

The dummies creaked and the arena trembled; a warning of what was to come if Naruto didn't hurry. He realized he was limited on time. He was fortunate that the voice saved him yet again, but he wasn't sure if he could handle fighting this army on his own with the chains he had no experience with. Especially not against that manically happy Sōryo that shook the entire arena each time it jumped.

"…"

An idea.

It jumped. It _jumped_. It jumped _really high_. This may be stupid, but Naruto was liking the idea the more he contemplated it. He remembered the jumping trajectories of the Sōryo, so he could predict how and where it would jump and land. To get it to jump the way he wanted it, however, he needed to reposition his body, and change the target of landing. Upon deciding, Naruto looked at the smiling Sōryo and immediately acted. He ran fast, trying to make this effort as lucrative as possible.

Naruto planted his two chains outwards into the ground in the direction he wanted to go, then straightened and pulled them at the same time. The sequence of actions caused his own body to fly across the field above the army of chittering dummies. He landed in an awkward position, and quickly maneuvered his way through the stationary dummies into a relatively open clearing. He was now in a position with the Sōryo in front of him and the kunai behind him. His chains were poised in the air in a menacing manner.

Naruto then waited, and almost wavered as the stupid grin on the Sōryo looked as if it _widened_.

As he waited, there came a pause. In that pause, Naruto knew the next moment would be it: all or nothing. The smiling Sōryo bent its knees, as expected, and the boy took action. He ran desperately and then slid under the wooden figure's legs. As he was sliding, the chains latched onto the shoulders of the Sōryo, and Naruto felt himself being lifted as it jumped. To add an extra boost, he jumped off the ground along with it and pulled his chains with great force simultaneously. Within a fraction of a second, he was high in midair, with his right hand outstretched. His eyes were set on the kunai. The movement of space slowed as his mind focused on the prize. Gracefully, his palm met the handle, then his fingers curled, then the boy yanked it out of the ceiling. Many feelings and emotions flashed through his mind: elation, accomplishment…and panic.

A question: how was Naruto going to land?

He was suspended in the air as he looked at the floor. The floor full of sharp, pointy edges of the swarm of Oni. The boy felt the air push against his skin as he began his descent.

Before he could even think of his next steps, however, space _distorted_. His eyes were open the entire time, and even then he could barely even process what had just happened. The boy was panting heavily as the exhaustion caught up to him and he took a moment to grasp his surroundings. In front of him was the forest he came from. He turned around, and saw it was the cave he entered earlier that gave him hell. His attention was drawn to the fading of the glow of the eyes of the Shodai Hokage statue. All the dummies then stopped what they were doing and froze in position, just like they were when he entered.

Naruto looked at his tightly clutched right hand, confirming that the kunai was still in it. It was, and he was welcomed by a slight warmth from it as well.

"I couldn't have…" Naruto openly said, doubting himself.

He slowly was starting to accept the fact that he _leapfrogged _a giant wooden monk with his new discovery of usage of chains, grabbed a kunai of the legendary Yondaime Hokage that many nations supposedly feared by presence alone, _escaped_ the hell pit which contained a horde of wooden "dummies" that were supposedly for _training_ (according to Minato Namikaze), and finally, miraculously _used_ _the Hiraishin_ to do so. Today was quite eventful…and stressful.

Naruto took one last look at the Shodai Hokage's statue and wondered. Could this have been a test, in a way? Did he pass? Why was the arena built like this, anyways? Many more questions passed through his head.

However, he was tired, so he willed his thoughts to vanish for now. He turned around and began walking, hoping that he could recall the mental map out of this dense forest.

⁂

**A/N: **smash like and subscribe

Thank you for reading.


	2. The Academy

"_**W͏a҉k͠ę ̴up."**_

And thus, he opened his eyes.

"…Shit."

Our protagonist, Uzumaki Naruto, was in quite a bind already. He woke up and discovered that the day was already approaching noon. On a normal day, this would have been fine since he never really had to follow a schedule or anything. However, today was a special day. Today was the first day when classes start for the new cohort of Academy students. The cohort _our protagonist_ was in.

"Oh damn…" Naruto groaned, as he got out of bed.

He looked at his bedside clock and realized that the orientation for classes started about an hour ago. He internally questioned himself if he should skip class or not but soon decided that skipping would do more harm than good. He then looked at the calendar that was pinned to the wall to ensure that today was actually the day when classes start. It's not as if the day could magically change to yesterday if he looked again, right? His futile hope was met with reality when he confirmed that today was in fact the day that lessons started.

"You could have woken me up earlier, you know," the boy talked aloud to himself while pacing around the room, hastily putting on a plain orange t-shirt and black cargo shorts. "Come on…at least respond, prove to me I'm not crazy…"

Again, he was met with silence. Ever since the day he discovered that the voice followed him wherever he went, he tried interacting with it daily. Unfortunately, the lack of response just continued to cause Naruto to question his sanity. When the voice did talk, however, it was always in random moments when Naruto least expected it to. It also seemed that the longer he lived with the voice, the clearer it seemed to sound. Before, it used to be fragmented and heavily distorted; now, he could hear each word with clarity. The voice itself felt _off_, however—it felt distant. He couldn't really visualize a face or other physical characteristics to imagine the speaker, but he could tell that the voice had slightly feminine tones when speaking.

Naruto internally joked to himself that maybe he really _was_ a monster if he kept hearing voices in his head. How could this be any trait of sanity? Maybe what the people told him wasn't that far off to begin with—

"_**G̸͢E̵̢T̵̨̨͠ ̢̛̀͝͞G̸͘͢͠͠Ó̡Ì̕͟N̡̕͘G̨̨͘"**_

His ears popped. She didn't like that. Assuming the voice is a she, that is. The first time Naruto referred to her as a male in his own thoughts she popped his ears then too, so this wasn't an uncommon occurrence. Naruto noticed that there were bouts when the voice sometimes got upset; it usually happened when he came close to near-death experiences or made self-deprecating jokes to himself. Also, when he had to urgently go somewhere—like now.

He took one last look at the mirror to observe himself. It was crazy to compare his transformation from fresh out of the hospital a couple months ago to the present. At a brief glance from another perspective, the boy appeared to look lanky and perhaps even frail. However, after careful observation, one would notice that his muscles were discreetly toned in all the right places; the exercise at the training grounds truly did its work.

His gaze drifted to his face and he started playing with his unruly blond hair, trying to pat it down to remove all the tufts from bed head. He was slightly surprised to see a couple strands of _red_ hair. It was curious, but it was quickly dismissed, as it wasn't of importance. It was just hair...who would care?

Lastly, Naruto made sure he had the Yondaime's kunai on him. Grabbing his chest, he felt the tri-pronged kunai underneath his t-shirt, out of sight. He tied it around his neck with a thin chain so he could keep it on him at all times. He couldn't afford to lose the treasure—it was his only chance of competing in the shinobi world, after all. If only he could just crack the seal and figure out how to use it without a fluke…

His thoughts paused when he realized he was ready to leave. He grabbed a single bag containing his school supplies and headed outside his apartment and towards the location of the Academy. Naruto, not one to walk through the streets, ran and hopped across the rooftops of the buildings to get to his destination.

The last thing he wanted was any inevitable conflict he would face if he was in direct view of the citizens of the village. Ever since _that_ day, he never wanted to be caught in a vulnerable position ever again.

⁂

It didn't take long for Naruto to arrive, but a new problem arose…how was he going to enter the Academy building? He couldn't just come through the front door and brazenly show everyone in the building that he was late on the first day of class. Even if he managed to sneak pass the front clerk—which was highly unlikely, considering the very open front lobby—he doesn't know the actual room number where his lectures were being held.

So, our protagonist did what any other protagonist would do, and snuck around the building, looking into the windows of the classrooms or any other possible entrances. He was going to sneak in.

Naruto climbed a tree, perched on one of the branches, then peered at the many windows on the side of the building. It seemed like the students were divided by their year, as he could tell by distinguishing the students in each class by their age group. He gazed around to try and pick out the lowest age group, which he should be a part of. He found a reasonable group of students that looked to be around six to seven years old—around Naruto's current age. Once he confirmed that none of the other classes were likely candidates of being his class, he made his way to the window of the anticipated class he was supposed to be in. He discreetly looked in through the window, spotted an empty seat at the back, and climbed through. He made his way to the seat without making _any _noise while remaining crouched—a skill he developed while maneuvering around the forest, as to not attract predators at night. He even went as far as to significantly reduce his heartbeat for an added safety precaution.

Once he climbed onto his seat, he was slightly startled when a voice called.

"Uzumaki…Naruto." A bland voice spat with a trace of annoyance that only a careful listener could have caught. A moment passed, and the speaker spoke again louder, "Uzumaki Naruto, are you present?"

"Uh…yes?" Naruto replied, confused as to why his name was called. They didn't catch him coming through the window, right?

Everybody in his vicinity was shocked and surprised at the sudden presence in the room. A few audible murmurs of surprise echoed. Everyone in the classroom initially thought the seat was vacant when they walked in, and nobody was in the seat when the chūnin sensei spent the first hour welcoming them to the Academy. Nobody came in through the front door entrance to the classroom either. Yet, somehow, somebody was in the seat, and nobody knew until the boy in the seat himself spoke up. Perhaps if the boy never spoke, nobody would have ever noticed him.

The sensei held his gaze on the boy for a couple of seconds then looked down at his clipboard and made a checking motion with his pen. He then looked up again, but with a malicious glare.

"Respond faster next time. If you don't, I _will_ mark you as absent," the sensei said in a rough tone, prolonging eye contact with Naruto specifically.

"…"

"…"

Naruto simply stared at the man and nodded shortly after. The teacher squinted in disapproval and then resumed calling out other names and continued making checking motions on his clipboard after receiving verbal responses.

"Hey," a raven-haired boy next to Naruto tried whispering to him, getting his attention. "Were you always sitting there? I thought that this seat was empty the whole time I've been in this room!"

"…"

"…"

"…I was here…the whole time," Naruto blatantly lied.

"…"

"…"

"No way!" the dark-haired boy yelled aloud. Upon realizing his outburst, the boy clasped his mouth with his hands.

Most students in the class giggled or laughed at their antics, but the sensei at the front of the class didn't find the humor.

"Hey, you, blond kid. If you make another spasm like that, there will be punishment involved," the sensei focused his words towards Naruto specifically.

Naruto was mildly shocked and offended that _he_ was the one to blame. It should be obvious that it wasn't him that made the outburst, yet the cause of the sudden disruption was pinned on him. Upon careful inspection on the teacher, he recognized the tone exuded from his eyes. It was the exact same look Naruto wanted to escape from. The one that was put on him ever since he could remember.

It was as if the teacher wanted him _dead_. He could feel so much hate emitting from his vicinity, and it was toxic. Naruto began to feel nauseous and breathed deeply to calm his nerves.

So much for first impressions.

Once Naruto got a hold of his senses and realized what he got himself into, he stood up and firmly looked at the chūnin. "I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again," the boy apologized as he even added a short, respectful bow to emphasize his words.

Half-satisfied with the apology, the sensei turned to face the class again, resuming whatever he had to say to the class. Naruto sat back down and looked blankly at the front of the class.

Meanwhile, the raven-haired boy next to him couldn't believe what just happened and stared at the blond. He didn't mean for his outburst to be pinned on the blond kid, and he immediately felt guilty about it. It was even more shocking when the blond even took responsibility for something he didn't even do; he even _formally apologized_ for it—no normal kid would do something like that!

"Uhm, hey. I'm sorry. That was all my fault," the boy said in a carefully hushed tone.

Naruto turned his eyes from the front of the board to meet his neighbour's. Realizing that talking is a bad idea, the blond took out a notebook from his bag and scribbled a message at a shockingly quick pace with great precision. He turned the page at an angle to let the other boy see while staring at the front of the class.

_Don't worry about it._

The boy's eyes widened in surprise, as he expected the blond to be mad at him. He then looked at the blond, and then pulled out his own notebook and began scribbling something of his own in a semi-discreet manner.

_My name is Uchiha Sasuke, what's yours? I wasn't paying attention to the sensei when he said your name._

Now it was Naruto's turn to be surprised. He looked at his neighbour and saw that he was eagerly looking at him, expecting a response. He wasn't used to seeing eyes without hate…perhaps the dark-haired boy wasn't aware of who he was in the village yet. So, Naruto complied and responded by writing in the notebook.

_Uzumaki Naruto._

Sasuke looked happy to receive a response from the blond, but then frowned as he scribbled a message messily.

_You're not mad, Naruto? That was all my fault. Why didn't you tell him the noise was because of me?_

Naruto tapped to what he already wrote from prior.

_Don't worry about it._

Their silent conversation was interrupted when there was a sudden applause in the room. Focusing his attention to the front of the board, Naruto noticed that the teacher was holding a small flame in his hand. It seemed like he was demonstrating a basic jutsu to the class. Each student seemed to be enamored at how the teacher spontaneously created fire out of essentially nothing. Well, almost everyone.

"My brother can do way better than that," Sasuke muttered under his breath, clearly unimpressed by the performance.

Naruto looked on impassively. He somewhat felt the same as Sasuke, as he himself saw what type of jutsu _advanced_ ninja could do. He spent his fair share of his time sneaking around, observing them at the training grounds. He spent a lot of his time learning from them and picking up a few tricks. Compared to their performances, seeing a simple flame in his teacher's hand wasn't that profound. He hoped that he could soon mimic what jutsu that _had_ impressed him, though. He wanted the ability to defend himself when the time called for it. He doesn't like risking death everyday. Thinking along these lines, brief images flashed through the boy's head.

His apartment, caught on fire.

A crowd chasing him with exposed weapons.

The sight of his own blood that he coughed up on the ground.

His bruised-up face, reflected in the mirror.

These were all instances of some challenges Naruto faced prior to the _incident_. Even after that day, there were several more attempts to take his life despite the Hokage promising it wouldn't happen again. Obviously, the promise didn't hold. He didn't mind, though, because he became strong enough to deal with it himself, as difficult as it was.

Something in his head ticked.

A headache—an occurrence that wasn't uncommon; they often came whenever he thought about himself and the village. Breathing heavily, he closed his eyes and tried to ease the pain. A seven-year-old boy should not have to think about life or death situations, since the stress was obviously catching up to him. He never wanted to live his life like this.

His hands clenched tightly, and he could feel the sweat forming on his palms. His ears rang obnoxiously loudly. Why was it him? Everyone else his age looked so happy. They never had to worry about coming home alive. He wanted that life. Why?

"_**N̸̢a̷̢̛r̵̶͟u̢t̷̕o͟.҉̸̕" **_

His throat clenched, making it harder to breathe. He was forced to breathe through his mouth, taking sharp, short breaths. Why was it him? Do his feelings not matter? How could they just look at him once, and then dismiss his existence entirely?

"_**Ná̴ru͘t҉o҉̴,̶ ͘͝ņo͞t͘͢ ͘a̴҉͠g̶̛a̸͠͠i̢ņ͠—"**_

His vision started flickering. Slight moments of blackness, even though his eyes were perfectly fine. It was better if he wasn't here. What was the point of the Academy? Why couldn't he escape those stares, even here? Would it really be better if he was…dead? Should he just end it? Yes, maybe, just conform to everyone else's wishes. That way, he wouldn't have to suffer like this anymore. Not lik—

"_**C̷͜͢ ҉̴̸͘͠L̷̕͠͡M̵̧ ̛͟D͝O̵͘҉̴́ẁ̶̴͞—̨͘"**_

Naruto's panic attack was interrupted when his neighbour prodded his elbow with his own. Sasuke had a slightly worried expression on his face, wondering if Naruto really was upset with him. From Sasuke's perspective, it looked like the blond was growing angrier, and he assumed that the blond never really forgave him for his prior outburst. Little did he know.

Naruto's demeanor changed almost instantly as he resumed to impose his natural, calm, stoic image. All visible signs of hyperventilation disappeared as he forced his mind to return to equilibrium. He looked at his neighbour, Sasuke, and noticed his worried expression. He had a panic attack in front of someone he just met—not good. Naruto inwardly sighed, as he tapped to his notebook again.

_Don't worry about it._

They both stared at each other for a few seconds, studying each others' expressions, then stared back to the front of the class since the sensei sought the attention from everyone. The sensei was going over the syllabus of their year and told the class what they were all expected of to pass to become Genin. Naruto was slightly disappointed by the curriculum, since he was sure he studied most of it at the library already. It looked like he wasn't going to learn anything new.

He really started to doubt the purpose of the Academy.

⁂

Naruto's expectations slightly changed when the class went outside to witness a taijutsu demonstration between two of his sensei. He wanted to see and get an idea of what he will learn from them. Both sensei bowed to each other and began the spar.

What Naruto saw though was disappointing, however, and his expectations just continued to drop as the spar went on. It may be because they dumbed down the fight for the other kids to learn easier, but to Naruto it was just painful to look at. Frankly, they were slow. So slow that if they were to spar against Naruto, the boy was confident he would be able to inflict more than just cuts and bruises on their bodies.

The sensei stopped the fight when one of them managed to trip the other onto the ground, holding the target to ensure he couldn't continue. The battle could have resumed into a grappling match, but it seemed that they felt that it was a good place for the spar to end. Again, the whole class looked at their sensei in admiration—except for a few, of course. The sensei put themselves upright and prepared to teach the class.

"Now, that's a little taste of what you guys will be learning while your stay at this Academy. You'll be expected to be at the level we've shown you by the time you graduate, though a little bit of what we've shown was chūnin level," one sensei explained, sounding slightly smug.

Naruto wondered when in the spar had they demonstrated _any_ chūnin level techniques. Everything looked so amateurish…he was starting to question the proficiency of the teachers.

He inwardly sighed.

"Don't feel discouraged if you can't get the hang of it right away, just train your bodies and keep practicing until you do. We'll be there to help you with your forms," the other sensei explained, "Now, pair up, introduce yourselves to each other, and spread out. You'll begin sparring sessions now, using the techniques we showed you in our demonstration and in class. Do your best to imitate our forms."

Many of the girls flocked to Sasuke for some reason, which left Naruto with no options who to be partnered with. He looked around to see if he could partner with any of the males, but they seemed to have paired up already. The pairs may have been friends or acquainted prior to this—an advantage that never came to Naruto. The blond was in a bind as he looked around because he didn't know how to interact with anyone to get them to spar with him. He was lucky when a shy voice approached from behind him.

"Uhm…uh…uhm…h-"

Naruto turned around and saw a girl with dark blue hair who was around his height. He noticed that she was pulling down on the front of her loose, light purple hoodie that looked to be a tad worn out. Oddly, she was looking straight at the ground for some reason.

"W-would you like to… uhm…" she was struggling with her words, and was stepping backwards, almost as if she was regretting her decision to talk to him.

"…"

"…uhm...!" she looked like she was painfully trying to say something.

"…"

Naruto didn't know what to do.

"_**Ac͞c͡ep̕t ҉h̨e̸r off͟er̢.̴"**_

He heard the voice but didn't react to it. Instead, he just complied as he started to realize what this odd situation was about.

"Okay," Naruto responded.

Her head snapped up to look at him, mildly surprising the boy as he saw her eyes had large, pale irises that lacked pupils. A Hyūga clan member, he recognized. Her face seemed surprised at his abrupt reply.

"You want to spar?" Naruto asked. His response was a curt nod from the girl. "Okay."

Her eyes widened as she continued to struggle with her words, "Uh.. t-thank… uhm…"

"…"

"…awa.." she seemed to cripple under his passive gaze.

"Thank you as well. Good luck."

His response put a confused expression on her face. Then, a faint blush appeared on her face, and she put her head down once again, staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact.

"Okay! Now that it looked like everyone found a partner, let's begin sparring," the sensei's loud voice boomed across the field. "Remember, we're going over the forms we went over in today's class and what I showed you before our demonstration. You can add your own style if you want to experiment—but remember, this is a spar! Try not to injure your partner! Now! You may begin!"

The teacher's voice hurt Naruto's ears.

After seeing how everyone around him got into their own respective stances, the boy faced his female partner as he fell into a pose that was different than what the sensei detailed. Naruto was mildly amused as his partner was surprised at the sudden shift in atmosphere as she took time to get into her own stance. His amusement continued as he observed that her stance was also different than what the sensei advised. The girl's eyes focused onto his stance, and her expression became strict and serious—a stark contrast from the behaviour she exhibited earlier. She was starting to become an interesting character to Naruto.

"Ready?" Naruto prompted half-heartedly. It was obvious that both of them were on edge, but he felt it was best to receive confirmation. His feedback was a short nod from the girl.

They both stood their ground, analyzing their opponent's stances and anticipating the other's move. Finding an opening, Naruto initiated the attack by stepping into the girl's range but backed off as he deflected an incoming jab at his neck. Noting the precision of her strike, he went out of her range to reassess his entry. She was _sharp_ in the way she attacked, and Naruto was wary as to how to approach her next.

Realizing that he would probably fail to connect properly again, the boy feinted with a punch, then pivoted on the ball of his foot to propel his body up into a reverse high kick. The girl foresaw this and blocked the upward kick, but was confused when she felt nothing against her arms. To her late realization, Naruto did another feint as he adjusted his kick at the very last moment to change the direction of his knees, bringing his kick downwards and breaking the girl's guard. He then continued the momentum and sent a flurry of kicks with the same leg, all at varying angles.

To the mild surprise of the boy, the girl kept deflecting every kick with her palms despite the quick pace at which he was sending them. Naruto did notice her getting tired though; he guessed that she wasn't used to receiving kicks—probably because of how she was taught. However, the girl surprised him yet again by suddenly choosing to evade the kicks with footwork _alone_ instead of parrying them.

Realizing the futility of his attack, the boy crouched on his grounded leg while retracting his kicking leg and lunged at the girl with the intent of a takedown. He ran while keeping his frame low. The girl was surprised at the sudden change of form the boy displayed as she took a step back, as if she didn't know how to handle this approach of attack; Naruto noted that she didn't have experience with unorthodox techniques. However, the girl proved capable yet again by shifting her posture accordingly as she searched for an area to counter.

Naruto, knowing she would go for a vital point (most likely his neck again), changed his form while in the girl's range of attack. He abruptly raised his frame, aiming for an uppercut with the aid of one of his legs pushing off the ground, and the other planted. The girl attempted to sidestep but was met with alarm when she realized the boy's grounded foot was planted on hers, preventing her from moving. Panicking, she brought her arms to cover her face, and the boy's fist met with her guard, breaking it. Naruto tried using this opportunity to follow up with a strike at her body but was surprised _yet again _when the girl regained her composure and deflected his strike while countering with one of her own. An exchange of hand-to-hand strikes went on, with neither opponent yielding their ground.

This was starting to get annoying.

Naruto slowly began to feel the strain on his arms as the fight progressed. He knew this wasn't his style of fighting and was slowly playing into the girl's rhythm. He broke the pace by jumping back and then jumping back in with a knee extended, switching the fight up by trying to land a mid kick. The girl promptly raised an arm to guard, but it wasn't strong enough. She was pushed back and lost her stance, and Naruto followed up with a low, sweeping kick. The girl's unguarded legs were swept as she began falling over. She closed her eyes to embrace for the impact of the ground. However, instead, she felt a force cushioning her, preventing contact with the dirt. She opened her eyes and saw the standing boy's face looking down at her. She realized that the boy's foot caught her head.

Naruto extended a hand. She took it and stood up with his help, with a faint blush on her face. The blush quickly grew redder when she realized how intense she got into sparring with the boy.

"UHM… uwaawa-imsosorwy!" she blurted out.

"…"

Naruto looked at her with a confused expression and was unsure how to respond. That was _the most_ exciting fight he ever fought; the wooden dummies he trained with were tough, but got very repetitive. Compared to them, this fight was very refreshing.

"Ididntmeanto h-h-hit you so hard d-duringourspar!" she exclaimed in an almost impossibly hushed, yet comprehensible tone.

"It's fine. It was a good spar," Naruto responded.

Frankly, Naruto didn't expect to fight so intensely. He knew from the moment the girl initially positioned herself into her stance that she was above what the Academy level detailed, but he still didn't expect the fight to go as long as it did. It was to be expected against a Hyūga clan member, he guessed. What was surprising though was that even when fighting something new, she formulated a plan accordingly with great precision. Every move she made was calculated and planned—quite unlike Naruto's spontaneous, pseudo-random fighting style.

Naruto developed this style as detailed by the notes from Namikaze Minato, and he honed each technique by training at the special training grounds he discovered quite a few months ago. At first, the wooden training dummies seemed to be too overpowering for him, but he slowly became accustomed to fighting against them. He was grateful, as he realized the dummies never actually went as far as to _kill_ him, but they did come close to, which helped motivate Naruto to improve even more. As of now, he could adequately handle the army of Oni, but still had trouble with the Sōryo.

The boy's thoughts were abruptly stopped when he realized there was an odd silence within his vicinity. The other students couldn't have already finished fighting their spars, right? He was sure that he didn't miss the signal from the teacher indicating that the sparring session was over either.

He glanced around to see that the other students were looking at him and his partner with curiosity…and perhaps…a bit of admiration? The expressions weren't familiar to the boy.

"…"

The students quickly returned to their own sparring once they realized the boy's attention was set on them. Unknown to Naruto, Sasuke kept his gaze on the blond a bit longer than the others but quickly resumed his sparring against his own partner.

Naruto looked back at the dark-haired girl he fought with and noticed that her cheeks were significantly red. She was fidgeting in a very strange manner, and it shocked him to imagine that this was the same person that challengingly fought him a while ago.

"…Are you okay?" Naruto asked, with a hint of worry in his voice.

She lifted her head up to look at his face. His bright blue eyes met with her pale white. It looked like she was about to say something…until she fainted.

"…"

_What?_

The boy began questioning how she collapsed the way she did.

Naruto soon called for his sensei to check on her. When the chūnin came, the boy was put subject to an accusing glare, as if he was the one responsible for this. This time, though, Naruto couldn't internally deflect the blame. He felt guilty even though he didn't understand what he could've done to make the girl lose consciousness so easily. She seemed fine during their intense spar together…so what went wrong?

⁂

The sparring session ended and thankfully, the girl recovered. The children all filed back into the building, and they assembled randomly at their desks. However, for Naruto, a new inconvenience surfaced…the girl was avoiding contact with him for some reason. Naruto wanted to directly apologize for what he did, but he couldn't even approach her to do so. When the teacher resumed lessons, he often caught her giving him short, not-so-discreet glances during the times he was pretending to ignore her. Each time he met her gaze, she would hastily avert her eyes with her cheeks reddening each time. He wondered if he hurt her to the point where she held a grudge against him or something similar. Perhaps he was a monster to her eyes as well…to be honest, it was a plausible reason—to Naruto, at least.

However, since she wouldn't let him apologize properly, he let the situation go and decided to push his worries aside. He just didn't feel like being pummeled with responsibilities on his first day at the Academy. Naruto didn't owe her anything, and neither did she owe him. He was at the Academy to learn skills that would help him protect himself—no distractions were necessary.

Whatever she labeled him was irrelevant: monster or whatever.

'Friends' were a luxury Naruto couldn't have.

"…_**Foolish boy…̕"**_

"…"

Naruto didn't know how to feel about being openly insulted like that—especially when the one insulting him was coming from inside his own head. _Especially_ when he doesn't even know what he was being insulted for. What unsettled him the most, however, was how _clear_ the voice was this time. It almost felt like it was a real person speaking instead of the distorted fragments from before. Naruto had a mildly troubled expression on his face, but quickly slipped back into his impassive persona when the teacher ended the lesson for the start of lunch break.

Wait, lunch?

Everyone seemed to cluster in their respective cliques, leaving Naruto alone at his desk at the back of the room. He realized he didn't bring a lunch, which this period seemed to be for. The room suddenly became louder as the chatter increased. Naruto's sensitive ears were in pain as a result. He felt no inclination to stay in the room, so he left the to go outside the Academy building.

Naruto aimlessly walked around in the foliage and tried to situate himself with the voice in the meantime. Verbally communicating with it invoked a response, but he also noticed that voicing his thoughts in his head sometimes worked as well.

_When will I learn who you are?_ the boy internally questioned.

…

He expected the lack of response, but it was still upsetting.

"_**Ç̵ą͝ĺ̴̕͜͝l͠҉͏̧ ̶̨̛́͡m͢͝y͢͟҉ ̷̢̡̛n̸̷̛͢͞am̴͘͟͞͞e̶͜..̷̕͠"**_

Naruto abruptly stopped his pacing. The voice this time was sudden and was more distorted than usual. It made it difficult to discern what the voice said. He recalled the memory to reiterate the message. As the words echoed through his head, he started to understand what they meant.

"…But how do I…?" he murmured to himself, thinking.

A crunch.

Naruto heard someone step on the grass from behind him. The boy was too lost in his own thoughts to sense anyone approaching him, and he panicked—any presences behind him did _not_ end up going well in his past experience. He ran further into the foliage, attempting to escape his pursuer. He stopped when he realized nobody was following him and looked back with his body masked by the tree branches and leaves. He raised a kunai from his hidden holster, preparing to throw it at his possible attacker. However, what he saw surprised him, and he lowered his kunai. _The girl_ from before was there.

Naruto stayed perched on the branch while waiting to see what she would do. He stared at her intently and noted that she was looking desperately into the foliage, as if searching for something—perhaps him? She had both hands clenched and in front of her face, hiding her mouth. It looked like she was trying to make herself seem small as possible. To Naruto, this image of the girl in front of him was the complete opposite of the girl he sparred with. Were they really the same person? What caused this change? And most importantly, what was she doing here?

Realizing that she didn't pose any harm, he was preparing to jump down, when suddenly—

"…UHM!"

He almost fell off his branch. She was directly looking _at him_, with bulging veins around her eyes. It seemed like she activated her Byakugan, which he recalled from the Yondaime's notes.

"uhm.. Ijustwantto…say sorry… ᶠᵒʳ ᶠᵃᶦⁿᵗᶦⁿᵍ ˢᵘᵈᵈᵉⁿˡʸ ˡᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵃᵗ!" she said in the same quiet, yet barely comprehensible tone as before. The girl then turned around and ran back into the Academy building, leaving a dumbfounded Naruto in the trees.

He could barely register what she fully said, as she practically squealed the last few words under her breath. But, from what the boy could understand, she just _apologized_ to _him_. This was the first apology Naruto ever received to his face aside from the Hokage himself, and he couldn't fully process what had just happened.

What bothered him more was how easily he was found out. He prided himself in his hiding ability, which was stealthy enough to avoid detection from the most seasoned shinobi around the training grounds—even most jōnin! The Byakugan was truly a force to be reckoned with…

⁂

Classes finally ended. _Finally_. The lessons were beyond painful for Naruto to sit through. So far, all they covered were safety precautions as the life of a ninja, as if everyone here didn't already know what they were getting themselves into. Considering that thought, Naruto realized that probably nobody in this class _actually_ _did_ understand the possibility of death as a ninja—the poor souls.

Ultimately, Naruto decided that he regretted coming to the Academy. It's as if children were somehow thrown into this institution to have fun, rather than learn. He wondered if this was the environment that raised such legends like the Shodai Hokage. He doubted the thought the moment he finished it, as he almost forgot about the war time era, and how comparatively lax the current era was.

Regardless, it was the first day of class, and Naruto expected more to come as the lessons progressed…hopefully.

He packed his bags and was about to get up from his desk to leave before he noticed the same girl _again_. She was directly in front of him and wasn't breaking eye contact this time, which slightly startled the blond. There was still a faint blush on her cheeks, however.

"My name is Hyūga Hinata…what is yours?" she looked more confident when she spoke, reminding Naruto a bit of the version of the girl he sparred with. She still looked like she was ready to run away at any moment, however.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he blandly responded. He was wondering why she was spending so much effort trying to talk to him.

Her next question though, surprised him.

"Can I…can I be your friend?" her face was beginning to redden as she asked.

"…"

Naruto's eyes widened slightly, which didn't go unnoticed by the dark-haired girl. Her intense staring at his face was far too uncomfortable…where had the girl who could barely look him in the eyes gone? His mind blanked and he absent-mindedly nodded, as he didn't know how else to respond. A moment passed as both of them slowly began to digest what had just happened.

A few moments ago, Naruto was completely fine with being friendless for the rest of his life. Now, though, he unconsciously let his actions defy that philosophy by accepting her request. A 'friend' was conceptually foreign to him, as he couldn't have even imagined anyone _approaching him_ to become his friend.

He looked again at Hinata, and noticed her eyes were still locked onto his. Her eyes were different—and he wasn't regarding the Byakugan. No, they were different in the sense that they didn't contain the malice which he would normally expect. This was…new.

Could he…trust her?

Maybe it was okay that Naruto accepted her request, for now. He would keep her at an arms distance, as she was obviously still suspicious in wanting to get close to _him_. There had to be an ulterior motive behind the gesture…right?

Hinata, however, was purely elated. To her, the blond was a boy she was aware of for a while. She observed him when she knew he wasn't looking. She saw him on the streets being ostracized by everyone. She noticed the pained expression on the boy's face, as subtle as it was. She saw his cuts and bruises. She knew he was alone, and that he had nobody to cry to. She knew he needed someone. She wanted to be that one.

Because she was alone too.

"Hey," a new voice caused both Naruto and Hinata to look at the source.

The raven-haired boy, Sasuke, was looking nervously at both of them, to the surprise of everyone, including a random group of girls gossiping—no, _fawning_ over the boy.

"Can I be your friend too?" he asked, looking directly into Naruto's eyes, with absolutely no hesitation.

"…"

At this point Naruto was stressing out. Why? What did they see in him? How come they didn't stare at him like everyone else did? He wanted to refuse, but he felt that if he did, it would be beyond rude and perhaps even insulting. The last thing Naruto wanted was to cause conflict at the Academy as well. So far, it seemed like nobody in the classroom knew who he was in the village, and he wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible.

So, to maintain his calm persona and neutral relations, he gave another curt nod as a response.

Sasuke had a slight smile on his face that replaced the plain expression from before. The group of girls watching the interaction swooned over the smile and giggled madly among themselves, to the annoyance to the rest of the class. Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata were mildly disturbed at their behaviour and they realized that they didn't want anything to do with it, so they chose to simply ignore them.

"So…I'll be leaving now," Naruto said, as he didn't want to prolong the awkward moment any longer. He felt uncomfortable just by sitting and being stared at by the strangers he just met.

It's almost as if he preferred if they hated and ignored him. Almost.

"Wait, can I spar with you before you go?" Sasuke quickly interjected.

"…No thanks. I'm going home," Naruto responded. He was fed up with social interactions. He wanted to go home and continue his studies. He quickly sat up and exited the room, leaving his two new 'friends' behind, confused.

Hinata stepped forward as if she wanted to say something to Naruto's retreating back, but quickly stopped. She decided that she did enough for today. She would talk to him tomorrow. She slowly walked to the exit at her own pace, choosing to leave as well.

Sasuke was…annoyed. He didn't expect Naruto to _refuse_. The blond's sparring against the dark-haired girl was impressive, and Sasuke wanted to see how he himself would measure against that skill; to Sasuke's annoyance, he ended up being pressured to fight an amateur pink-haired girl who seemed overly eager to partner with him.

Regardless, Sasuke decided to not take the blond's refusal seriously, so he exited the room too. He made sure to avoid contact with the group of girls that were giggling while looking at him…creepily. He decided he would practice his shurikenjutsu by himself—his brother _still_ wouldn't help him with that, to Sasuke's annoyance. Lately, Itachi felt more distant to him than usual…a little more depressed, too.

Hopefully Sasuke could talk to him tonight and help him feel better.

He loved his brother.

⁂

Naruto awoke in the middle of the night, shivering. Sitting up, he realized his clothes were completely drenched with sweat. He was about to get up to change his clothes until he paused.

Something was wrong.

The ANBU guards that usually patrolled around his apartment were absent. He could _feel_ them whenever they were normally around, yet the presences weren't there tonight. Suspicious of the situation, Naruto strained his ears to get a better sense of his surroundings—he immediately regretted it.

Because a shrill _scream _rang in his ears.

His head immediately snapped to the direction of the sound and wondered what the source of it could be. It sounded human-like…which was terrifying, because _nobody_ made that kind of noise if they were simply _scared_. Yet, Naruto couldn't think of any animal that could've sounded like that.

Suddenly, a wave of disgust filled him. He could _feel_ the terror, sadness, and hate in a concentrated area somewhere within the village. This was almost like…the feeling from that day. He realized that these emotions were in the direction of the sound he heard from prior.

The emotions were pushed into Naruto's mind and slowly began morphing into another headache. The boy was struggling to stay conscious at this point. His joints felt weak, eyes watered, heart pumped wildly, and his breathing became uncontrollable.

Perhaps…it would be better if he saw what was happening for himself. Perhaps he could help and thus soothe the headache. The boy walked towards the window while barely staying upright. He looked out and could've _sworn_ that the mo͘ǫn̕ had a tin̕t of _r̵ed̷_. Dismissing it, the boy started to unhinge the latch to his window until it spoke to him.

_**"****Don't"**_

He was glad to comply with the simple command and collapsed onto the floor, overpowered by the emotions. None of this would be remembered tomorrow.

⁂

The Uchiha Massacre occurred on that night.

The news spread throughout the entire village in the following morning.

Itachi defected Konoha and was branded a traitor.

Sasuke was rumored to be the only survivor.

⁂

A few weeks passed since the first day of the Academy. What transpired during that period could be described as nothing more than…uneventful.

As the days went, Naruto paid careful attention to his surroundings in case of another personal attack on him, but luckily they never came. However, there was something else that was occuring, but not unexpected: everyone began looking at him different. There was scorn forming on their faces, one by one.

On this day it was especially noticeable. There were several groups huddled together throwing very conspicuous glances at him then whispering among themselves. If he strained his ears he could pick apart the contents of their conversations, but Naruto felt he didn't have to. It was obvious.

Everyone moved out of his way as he walked into the room. Many of the faces that once looked at him with awe on the first day now held fear and contempt. It was truly frightening how easily they could change their intentions. Naruto expected this, but he was still surprised that it happened so _soon_. Perhaps their parents found out of his presence at the Academy and warned them of him already. Perhaps it started from a single rumour. They shouldn't know about the Kyūbi, so they were probably told that he was a 'demon' in some type of way.

Oh well.

Regardless, the boy headed up the stairs to his usual seat at the back of the class. He was accustomed to this treatment; it was certainly nothing new. He would just ignore it per usual. However, Naruto's thoughts wavered when he spotted one of his 'friends' he made a while back. His eyes were different, and for once filled Naruto with slight hope that maybe he would defy his expectations. He was absent ever since that day for some reason, so Naruto couldn't help but be curious at what their 'friendship' was like.

Uchiha Sasuke was sitting at the back of the class at the same spot where they first met. Naruto took his usual spot next to the same neighbour.

"Good morning," Naruto experimentally greeted, trying to see if their 'friendship' was a permanent agreement from that day.

He thought for a long time about the odd situation when he went home that day, and he decided that it would be worth trying to maintain their 'friendship'. After all, there would be more disadvantages being alone than having a few friends…according to the books he read, at least. Also, since the opportunity literally walked up to him, Naruto would be a fool to not take the chance. Perhaps he could trust Sasuke and Hinata to change his skepticism.

Naruto's expectations, as small as they were, dropped when Sasuke turned to stare at him.

Those eyes.

Full of confusion, sorrow…and _hatred_.

It turned out that 'friends' were a luxury after all.

⁂

**A/N: **Hey guys. Thanks for your reviews on my first chapter. Please, keep them coming! One thing I'm mostly worried about is the pacing of this story. I want each chapter to sort of be episodic and skip from parts to parts of Naruto's life. This is because I obviously can't _just_ write about Naruto's experience at the Academy or as a genin/chūnin/jōnin for chapters at a time. How do you feel about Naruto's social interactions? Are they too slow to read?

Also, I am aware of the massive amount of NaruHina fics out there. I hope this one will be unique. Personally, I find Hinata's initial character in canon to be annoying as hell. Even writing her in this chapter was annoying…so, that's why I'm developing her earlier than normal. I hope to expand on this on the next chapter…so stay tuned.

To the reviewer asking about the "bold text stuff", google "Zalgo text".

Thank you for reading.

Edit: for clarification, I was specifically annoyed at Hinata's constant s-s-stuttering. I don't hate her backstory or development at all—in fact, I think it was one of the best side character developments in Naruto (apart from Gaara/Lee). It's just...when writing her character, writing all these "UHM"s gets a tad tedious...haha.


	3. They Cry

**A/N:**

**(2020-03-12) SORRY, no new chapter. I deleted the Prologue and didn't realize it would actually update the story...anyways, I'm working on the next chapter so...expect that in...a month? Hahaa...**

**(2020-04-03) Update, for anyone still checking this...it's going to be later than initially predicted. My exams are an absolute clusterf**k with the COVID-19 pandemic and classes transitioning online. School takes priority above all else, but I still feel guilty about not updating this as much as I would like...I'm very sorry.**

⁂

The rain pattered heavily against the windows and the walls shook slightly as the winds roared against them. There was an occasional boom of thunder that lightly shook the floor.

The smell of ink was pungent in the air.

A certain blond was sitting in an open room, stroking an ink brush against a canvas at a confidently fast pace with near-impossible precision. What little furniture he had in the room was pushed aside to make space for the mosaic of paper and ink stones scattered around. Heavy curtains were closed to shut out all sunlight, yet the boy could perfectly see what he was doing.

There were stacks of paper at odd places at varying heights surrounding him along with the occasional candy wrapper and empty water bottle here and there. Several seals—whether they be incomplete or failures—were hung on the walls as reminders for the boy as he worked. Some seals were so large that they were developed beyond their paper and expanded onto the wooden floor or walls. No space was wasted.

This chaotic mess was perfectly normal to the boy. It had become a part of his daily life.

The boy, Naruto, was working for three days straight with no sleep, as he couldn't afford to stop his progress. He couldn't even feel the hunger pangs and signs of sleep deprivation anymore. Anything that deterred his concentration was easily cast aside; because after all, he was working on what he believed to be the last step in unlocking the Hiraishin.

The kunai that the Yondaime Hokage supposedly left behind; it was suspicious, since according to his notes, Namikaze Minato was _very_ careful not to leave any active Hiraishin kunai behind after use. Yet, Naruto discovered the seal, and he even managed to prove that it _worked_ when he used it on the day he got it…even if it was a fluke. He was almost naïve as to link the miraculous event to _fate_—if it didn't sound so stupid, of course.

Proving that the Hiraishin seal _worked_ wasn't enough, though. Naruto wanted to understand _how_ it worked, and he wanted to reverse-engineer everything about it to transform it into something more. At first, the Hiraishin technique was a complete enigma to Naruto, as he had absolutely no knowledge on fūinjutsu. Rather, he couldn't even stare at the layered storage seals in the Yondaime's personal journal without becoming totally lost in the sheer complexity of it. However, after months of reading, experimenting, and learning from the bottom-up, he could probably be considered as one of the most proficient in Konoha's sealing-corps, as egoistic as it sounded. He just seemed to have a natural obsession—no, _talent_ for it.

Perhaps this would let Naruto obtain the strength that he desperately yearned for. To finally commend himself and live his own life: that was his ultimate goal.

Naruto breathed heavily through his nose, focusing at the task at hand. He was close to finishing the last strokes which would complete the final, central sealing matrix, which by extension would connect a network of subsidiary component seals together. He used the divide-and-conquer method and ultimately decided that he would create a unique modular seal as his prototype since he wasn't at the level of condensing the Yondaime's signature seal _just_ yet.

In other words, the Hiraishin seal was divided into several simpler seals, with one seal to connect them all: the 'central matrix'. The central matrix could be compared to the 'brain' of the seal, as it connected and controlled all the 'limbs' in its desired fashion; however, if any 'limb' didn't behave as intended, it could be improved or outright replaced. Once the whole network (or 'body') behaved ideally, Naruto would then condense the entire array to fit it onto a kunai handle, just as the Yondaime did. Naturally, creating the 'brain' was a delicate task—any slight hesitation with his wrist could potentially destroy the day's progress, nullifying Naruto's all-nighter streak.

However, that wouldn't matter soon, because after this step he could finally finish and test the seal.

He was so close to finishing.

_So _close.

If it wasn't for her damned voice.

"_**S͘omeone ͘is at͘ th̴e ͢do͟o̢r̶.̷ F̀or ̛y̕o͝u.̕"**_

She spoke. He assumed that the voice was courteous enough to leave him alone while he was working, since it hadn't spoke since he started his marathon of fūinjutsu. She was very helpful at times like that. She was especially helpful during his learning phase, when the voice often dropped cryptic hints that pushed him towards the right direction. Really, without the voice, Naruto would not be where he was at today.

That still didn't stop him from being annoyed at her, though.

"…Okay. _Fine,_" he hissed out loud, holding back his swears. He didn't want to get his ears popped if he did.

Naruto sighed heavily, dropping his ink brush away from a botched stroke. The good thing about the modular network he created was that he could revisit each "limb" and work on each component separately, so at least the _entire_ array of seals wouldn't be ruined by one mistake. It still hurt to lose progress on the central matrix, though.

Naruto stood up, stretched his stiff muscles, then walked towards the door. Whoever was at the door better have had a good reason for being there, having the _gall_ to interrupt his session. Due to his tiredness, he couldn't immediately identify who the person on the other side of the door was by using his senses. He was somehow sure it wasn't any of the ANBU, though.

The door opened with a slight creak, and once he saw who was standing in front of him, Naruto's bad mood nearly vanished. In front of him was a girl around his height drenched in the rain. She had her head down as the rainwater continuously dripped down from her messy black hair. Her dishevelled clothes were soaked completely through, and her whole body seemed to be shivering. Her arms were crossed and held close to her body, as if trying to shield herself from the outside. It was apparent that she was standing in the rain for very long time…so, was she standing in front of his door like this the entire time?

The boy felt inclined to address the girl, wanting answers.

"…Hinata."

Her pale white eyes snapped up to meet his cerulean blue. In that moment, Naruto was truly lost for words or thought.

It was like looking at a mirror.

That exact same expression. Her tightly closed mouth, slowly and faintly clenching then unclenching. Her straight, neutral lips with their ends almost _wanting_ to be pulled downwards into a frown. Those cold, stoic eyes…making it difficult to look away from the expression. The face was hiding so much, yet it revealed a lot. A contradiction that made sense to the boy, since he lived with it for as long as he could remember.

Lightning lit up the sky for a brief instance.

"Why weren't you there?"

And thunder followed, quaking the boy.

He couldn't respond.

"You haven't been at the Academy for a month now," she continued.

He was about to retort, but—

"No, I know that he's your _shadow clone_. You aren't him. Don't pretend to _be_ him," she said. It was almost a whisper, a hiss. Her words would have been drowned out in the heavy rain, if it weren't for Naruto's hearing.

They held eye contact for an immeasurable moment. It was uncertain what was exactly being said through this non-verbal conversation, but it was certainly meaningful to each of them as they analyzed each other's faces. The boy felt like he was paralyzed to the spot even though there was no force preventing him from moving. It was as if the world paused just for the two of them. He wanted to escape, but her gaze wouldn't let him.

Everything was interrupted when her expression broke, however. Suddenly, there were tears streaming down her face—and no, it didn't seem to be from the rain.

Lightning and thunder boomed together this time.

Senses came back to Naruto, and he suddenly remembered the situation. He looked at her broken face and felt something click inside him, as if he came to an internal decision. He grabbed Hinata's hand and brought her inside his apartment, closing the creaky door and dampening the sound of the heavy rain from outside. The unnatural coldness of her hand greatly startled the boy.

He pulled a random chair from near the walls and put her in the seat, then parted the curtains to let light flood into the dark room, momentarily blinding the boy. Hinata was limp throughout the whole process, and it took immense patience to guide her properly to sit while trying to maneuver around the disorganized mess on the floor. Noting her wet hair, the boy then went and grabbed a fresh towel and draped it over her head. He didn't know _why_ he went to such lengths to care for her like this—it was completely unlike his usual, apathetic self.

The blond then stared at her, expecting her to dry herself off. It was a futile prospect, however, as she continued to stay limp, staring at the floor…like a lifeless doll. That was the only thing that he could compare her to: a doll. Absolutely no movement, with her glass-like eyes staring at fixed space. Her porcelain features were accentuated by the monotonous light that leaked into the room. It looked tragically sad, even to the boy.

Frustrated at the scene, Naruto awkwardly rubbed the towel on her head, trying to get as much of the cold water out as possible. It was a slow process since he didn't know how to dry out so much hair, since he was used to drying only himself. He didn't want to be rough either, since the hollow girl in front of him seemed to be so frail that he worried about her collapsing with each touch. Despite his clumsy yet gentle kneading of her head, Hinata continued to stay limp.

Truly, like a doll.

As his hands worked, Naruto's mind raced, thinking about what might have led to this development. She seemed upset at his absence, but why? Sure, they agreed to be 'friends', but Naruto expected her to drop the pretense just like Sasuke, the other 'friend', did many months ago. He was careful to keep his distance with her, despite her approaching him nearly everyday. She was oddly persistent like that…and it irked him. Eventually, he started caring less and let her enjoy herself by letting her do whatever she wanted, no further questions. Whatever personal gain she had from being within his proximity had no ill effect on him, so it didn't matter in the long run. But then, as the days went, there came a time when he stopped caring altogether and stopped going to the Academy. There was no purpose for him there. He felt confident he could pass and become genin any day if only the sensei weren't so vexatious. So, he was patient to wait until his cohort would graduate, and then he would graduate along with them. However, he was not patient to _physically attend_ every class—he had much more important things to do.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he felt movement underneath his hands and almost retreated backwards when he felt an icy hand clasp on one of his. If it were anyone else, Naruto was certain he would retaliate. However, the boy had grown accustomed to the girl's odd, seemingly sudden behaviours since their confrontation at the door. He was still in control of the situation, so he let her continue with whatever she planned, curious to see what she would do next.

Naruto felt his hand being pulled upwards, lifting the wet cloth and fully revealing Hinata's face. She was staring at him, and it almost seemed like some life was seeping back into her, resembling a human expression. Almost.

The next few moments, the boy felt helpless, as he foolishly let his guard down.

She pushed and tackled him onto the floor, pinning his arms wide apart with astonishing strength, straddling his torso. His eyes met with hers again…and he felt paralyzed, _again_. This time though, veins bulged out of the girl's temples and throbbed about madly, making her gaze frightening to return. The Byakugan certainly wasn't proficient in genjutsu, yet he still felt so powerless against them by some odd_ force _exuding from them. Hinata looked deeply into him, as if trying to determine something.

"Why…why do I have these eyes…tell me, are they really mine?"

"…"

He couldn't reply.

The rain pattering against the roof tiles grew louder.

Something seemed to snap in her after his continued silence.

"Why, Naruto? If you don't know…then, how can I?" her voice croaked, indicating that her vocal cords were starting to fail on her.

A flash of lightning brightened up the whole room blindingly. The boy's eyes closed for an instant—the _briefest_ moment—but when he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see the girl with _his _kunai, his precious treasure, in her hand. He didn't have the time to question _how_ she knew of it, or _how _she pulled it out from under his shirt so fast without him detecting it…

Because Hinata thrust the kunai directly towards her eyes.

Space slowed to an imperceptibly slow pace. Naruto acted immediately without consciously processing anything. First, he grabbed her wrist with the hand containing the knife and pushed it down, away from her face. Then, he rolled his body to the side while tucking his legs in. With his other hand, he pushed on her stomach, trying to make her body roll along with him. He hooked his foot around hers to add a point to pivot. The final outcome of the maneuver was an excellent mount reversal with Naruto on top, pinning her down.

Thunder boomed, quivering the once still air in the room.

They never broke eye contact. His hand was still tightly gripped on her wrist that held the kunai. Both were breathing slowly and heavily, trying to mask their signs of mental exhaustion.

Staring at Hinata, Naruto noticed drops of water falling on her face. The source was…his own eyes. He quickly realized he was crying—something that he _never_ did, not even on the day he almost died. He dismissed it as a trait that he could never achieve, further dissociating him from humanity. Yet, it was possible, and he continued to prove himself wrong as tears continued to drop. However, currently, he didn't care about any of that anymore. He didn't dare wipe his tears away. He didn't want to risk letting go of her hands.

Hinata's eyes widened in surprise at seeing the tears come from the boy. She somehow knew that she was the only one to see this kind of face from him, yet, she felt no accomplishment in that.

This was not what she wanted.

She tried to struggle out of his grip, but Naruto was sure to keep her movements locked down. Upon realizing the futility, the girl slacked and became limp, returning to her dead, doll-like appearance. Her veins in her temples were still throbbing wildly, which was the only visible sign indicating her to be alive.

Suddenly, her tightened hand on the kunai handle weakened, and Naruto immediately disarmed her and flung the kunai at a wall, striking dead center inside a spiral-patterned seal with a sharp thud.

Her empty irises followed the kunai, despite seeing it clearly in her periphery vision through the Byakugan. Her throbbing veins sunk back into her temples, with her gaze still on the kunai.

She lost what small hope she had at that moment; she couldn't end it.

So, she wept.

Naruto couldn't do anything but cry silently along with her.

The rain continued to patter heavily against the roof tiles.

⁂

It was a cloudy morning.

On a normal day, the Hyūga estate could be described as peaceful and calm. The quiet atmosphere would probably make any visitor uncomfortable, but to the people living in it, it was expected and perfectly natural. It was an accepted norm that everyone unknowingly upheld, and the Hyūga were careful to maintain their regal demeanor whenever and wherever they went.

Except for the dojo.

The dojo was a sacred place in the sense that it was an area which they could freely express themselves. Through physical engagements in battle, the Hyūga could unhinge their inner selves and _vent_ after bottling their internal turmoil and struggles for so long. Through various techniques honed everyday with rigorous practice, they could thrust their feelings into the world by expressing it in a spar. It wasn't _just_ a fight to them—it was an art.

Whether it be sadness, rage, or mere contentment, they could erase all of that and come to peace with their own mind in the briefest moments of euphoria when exchanging fists—or rather, palms. It didn't matter how they initially felt, because in the dojo, everyone lost themselves to their instinct. Everyone became their elementary selves.

But because of this, some delve far too deep into their instinct.

They lose control.

When they do, they get punished severely. Anything that stuck out from the norm was to be cut off immediately, as the Hyūga image and pride were far above such stains.

Currently, the dojo had two occupants posed in their own respective stances, facing each other. There were several spectators observing them with one notable figure standing at the side, supervising the fight. His mere presence filled the entire room with tension.

Hinata looked over to her side at the man, and quickly averted her eyes upon meeting her father's stern gaze. The patriarch of the clan, Hyūga Hiashi, scared her for all her life. She couldn't handle being in the same _room _as him without feeling paranoid about disrespecting him and getting punished as a result; his punishments were painful—exceptionally so. She never deeply understood him, and he never even _tried_ to understand her. Their relationship was painfully simple: Hinata was to praise him as a leader, and he was to treat her as his subordinate.

She returned her eyes on to her opponent, Hyūga Neji, her cousin. He was a person she once loved. However, it was apparent that their relationship changed. They grew further apart ever since Neji's father, her uncle, volunteered his death due to some political conflict in the clan. Hinata didn't quite understand the purpose of the action, but she could feel the consequent drama surrounding the decision. The clan itself changed after that day; the branch family grew far more hostile with passive animosity but never overstepped the constantly blurring boundary of disrespect. Neji…unfortunately fell victim and melded into their ideologies and showed no hesitation to prove his distaste of Hinata ever since that day. It hurt her.

They used to play together when they were younger. At first, they were so shy and small, but they quickly warmed up to each other and became best friends. They smiled, they laughed, and they learned. It hurt Hinata when she was put subject to his glares with obvious resentment in his expression. It was painful to compare his once innocent face to the now permanent frown. She would do anything to go back and cherish those memories longer. Unfortunately, she could now only wallow in regret and push herself down further with her self-pity.

Standing opposite of each other now, it suddenly dawned on her that they represented two different factions. Hyūga Neji of the branch family, and regrettably, Hyūga Hinata of the main family. The audience seemed to have realized this too, and each respective family were looking at their representative figure at the center of the room. It was quite ironic: despite them being first cousins and raised as siblings, they were complete strangers as of now. Why did things become like this? How could things have changed so drastically in such a short period of time?

A loud snapping sound brought her alert. It was the sound of her opponent's foot slamming against the tatami floor, lunging to attack.

The match started while she was zoning out despite her eyes being on her opponent the entire time, and she was punished by having an open hand approach her within dangerous proximity of her face. The girl barely sidestepped the direct palm to her face and winced as blood started seeping from the cut that emerged on her cheek from the glancing blow. As she stepped back to reassess the situation, she noticed that Neji wasn't going to stop anytime soon, and she was forced to step around his attacks.

A step to the right, left, behind, all whilst slapping away the approaching palms towards her body. Anything to delay her inevitable defeat.

There were some gasps of audible surprise from the audience at the impressive footwork displayed by the young clan heiress. As far as they were concerned, no other Hyūga within Neji and Hinata's age group were even capable of seeing let alone _dodge _Neji's attacks. From all her demonstrations in sparring, the young heiress showed no outward talents other than some slightly above average reflexes and a disciplined mindset that was expected of any clan heiress. However, today, the girl shocked the entire clan by going toe to toe with the branch family _prodigy_—the branch family's hope to fight against the main branch.

It almost seemed like Hinata became a prodigy herself overnight…but Hinata would internally scoff if she openly heard this claim. Frankly, nothing changed about her. Her quiet and shy personality caused her to stay out of sight from the public and even her own clan—nothing more, nothing less. Why would she attract needless attention when she already has so much negativity against her already? She showed her true colours to a special someone already. That was enough.

The clan ridiculed her. She was perceived as weak because she was born a girl right from the beginning. Not a strong male figure, like her father. There were no expectations of her, and the treatment continued when she continued to display her shy demeanor. Truly, she was a failure in the clan's eyes…and especially to her father's. Even as of now while fighting Neji, she could tell that the main family in the audience held no real concern if she lost or not—she already failed to them, of course.

To think that there were even rumours of letting Hanabi, her _younger sister_, overtake her position as clan heiress in the future. Absolutely _ridiculous_. She didn't care about it all until then. That was when she became angry and decided that she needed to display _some_ worth.

She tried refocusing her thoughts onto the match.

As she held off Neji's pursuit, Hinata couldn't find it in her heart to hurt him despite him hurting her. She couldn't strike him, despite him creating so many openings as his style grew sloppy from exhaustion. She knew that reciprocating his hate wouldn't bring them back to what they once were—she _refused_ to be pushed into the main branch ideology of isolating the branch family. Neji wasn't her brother, but she respected him as one. He wasn't a stranger, like what her father thought of her.

Internally, the girl pleaded to Neji, hoping he would understand that she never wanted this between them. Her eyes drifted from his fighting form to his face, and her heart broke at the cruel expression she showed her. It was obvious that he wanted to hurt her, and it also looked as if he _knew _that Hinata hated this situation.

How sadistic, he was, to keep pushing despite this.

Hinata continued to step around while parrying all of Neji's advances. She let herself fall into a trance while circling them both around on the tatami mats.

Why was she forced by her father to fight like this, under the guise of 'practice'? All that did was divide and reaffirm the position of the main and branch families, further segregating them. How could there be power in a clan with such segregated groups and infighting?

Did her father know she was outcasted by the whole clan, even the main house, as the futilely weak clan heiress? Did he even _care_? Why was he so stoic? Why did he have to obey the elders of the clan so religiously? How could he abandon his own family for the supposed greater of the clan? Surely, he could see the corruption, so why wasn't he acknowledging it?

What about Hanabi? Could Hanabi feel the atmosphere in the clan? Could Hinata continue to protect her from the animosity and the strict expectations? What would happen to her if she was truly to become the clan heiress, like the rumours suggested? Perhaps she would grow up into a person that would come to hate Hinata, just like Neji has. That would be exceptionally painful.

…Would that mean Hinata would become alone?

No…because she had a special someone. She became friends with him a while ago, despite his clear hesitance in the offer. She continued to approach him from that day on. But…lately, he became distant—far more than usual.

She was beginning to lose him, too.

_Naruto_.

A slight misstep.

Neji seized the rare opportunity and struck her with a thrust to the stomach, causing her to fly across the dojo. There was a loud thud that echoed as Hinata's body crashed onto the floor. She was silent the whole time—she didn't even let out a squeak.

The onlooking audience felt their throats clench with tension, as they were expecting Neji to deal the finishing blow. Oddly, the match hasn't been called off by the clan head supervising the match, so the spar was apparently ongoing. Much to the branch family's disappointment, it seemed like Neji gave up on his pursuit and was content with breaking through Hinata's impossibly maintained guard. It also looked as if he was too tired to continue fighting.

Hinata, meanwhile, laid still on the tatami mats. She wanted it all to be over. This whole thing was pointless, really. She had nothing to prove to anyone anymore; she showed her worth.

The girl rolled her body over and met eyes with Neji once more. She didn't know why, but she could only give him a pained smile, even after all the treatment he had given her. It was all she could do to show her resignation. She hoped he would be content with his win over her will.

However, this seemed to have had the opposite effect on the boy.

"Don't you _dare_ look at me like that," Neji snarled. His eyes widened, and his face suddenly contorted into a horrifically violent expression. He activated his Byakugan and _leapt_ through the air with his right palm cocked back, ready to strike Hinata's fallen body.

It was abrupt, and nobody in the audience could do anything to stop the obvious attempt of murder that was occurring. It was clear to everyone that this match was no longer a spar.

To the girl on the ground, she couldn't be any less surprised at the situation. She stared at Neji's form coming to fall on her body, slowly coming to accept the fact that she would soon die at his hand. It was funny…despite all her suffering, she wasn't suicidal enough to be content with this ending. If she were to end it, she wanted to end it on her own terms—not like this.

Her wish was granted when she saw Neji collapse in the air, mid leap. It seemed like someone from the main house managed to activate the caged bird cursed seal.

Hinata couldn't decide if that was fortunate, or unfortunate.

Her eardrums rang as Neji howled in pain while clutching at his head. She could only stare, horrified, as Neji clawed at his face, trying to remove the bandages on his forehead. His hands were shaking intensely, and it seemed like he couldn't get a proper grip and continued to accidentally scratch his face repeatedly, drawing blood under his nails. When he finally got a grip, he tore off the bandages, revealing a shining cross with a horizontal line on each side on his forehead. The seal seemed to burn brighter and brighter, as Neji's cries only grew louder along with it. Upon realizing the futility in screaming, the poor boy flung his body around the tatami mats, banging his head against the floor repeatedly. His eyes were completely bloodshot as the veins from his Byakugan throbbed about madly.

This all happened within a matter of seconds, and Hinata could barely process what was happening. She was _disgusted_ by the spectacle. Surely, this couldn't be her dear cousin. This couldn't be that same child that she used to look up to, way back when.

Before she realized, she was crying.

"Please, stop this," she pleaded in a whisper, still in denial of the situation.

However, Neji's howls didn't stop. In fact, they became raspy and it sounded as if the boy was gurgling on his own vomit. His hands then clasped around his neck, tightening. He was starting to choke himself.

"STOP! PLEASE," she cried.

The thrashing against the floor stopped and the dojo quietened. All that was left was the soft sound of Neji's whimpering.

At this point, many of the onlooking members of the branch house were about to revolt against the brutal display against one of their kind, but they were quickly hushed under the murderous glare of Hiashi, the clan head. They were angry, but they knew that they were all vulnerable of the same punishment as what was shown.

This was a demonstration.

This was the fate of the branch family.

Hinata stared at Neji's crippled form while tears continued to stream down her face. _This_ was what their relationship has become. This was reality. She realised now that what they once had was irredeemable.

She looked at the man who conducted the public torture session: her father. He still held his hands in the wretched seal. He noticed her gaze and shifted his stern eyes onto her own, as if daring her to oppose his authority just as the branch house would. Intimidated, she broke eye contact yet again.

This was too much. Right now, she just wanted to be alone.

"Hinata. If you do change from your current, pathetic self, this will be your fate," her father said, while gesturing his eyes to Neji's whimpering form. His final words echoed throughout the room, or that's what it seemed like to Hinata.

At this point, the girl broke.

She got up from the floor and ran to the sliding doors, pushing them aside. A loud squeak stopped her escape. In front of her was a small figure laid on its back, and immediately, Hinata recognized the small person. Hinata prayed that this person, of all people, wouldn't be here to witness this atrocity.

"Hanabi…" she barely whispered.

Her adorable, younger sister. Someone she cherished with all her heart and would do _anything_ to protect.

The younger girl looked at Hinata with a complex expression. Her once sweet eyes were red from crying; they showed recognition of her older sister, but there was a distance that wasn't there before—an invisible guard, almost. Her mouth was hung open with her lips trembling; it looked as if she wanted to cry out, but it was obvious that she was trying to hold her voice in as much as possible. This was an expression Hanabi never showed to Hinata before.

She was hurt, and Hinata hated it.

How long was she here, to watch this cruel _'sparring' _match? Was she here to watch Hinata break down under her father's gaze? Did she see Neji suffer in agony? Did she hear…what their father said?

Slowly, she backed away from her younger sister. It looked as if Hanabi wanted to say something, but Hinata didn't want to hear anything. She failed to protect her sister from the monster that was the Hyūga clan. She didn't even deserve to look at her anymore.

So, she ran outside.

She ran and ran.

She ran until she couldn't feel anything anymore.

She ran until she was tired and felt nothing but her own exhaustion.

Before she knew it, she was standing alone on an empty street. She looked up and noticed the sky was completely covered with sullen dark clouds, so she couldn't tell what time of day it was.

Her breathing was shaky. Her heartbeat was erratic and wasn't calming in the slightest. She was shivering from the cold, due to her clothes being wet with her sweat. The small cut on her face healed, but still stung. The blood dried up and was washed away by her tears. She felt disgusting.

Above all this though, she felt _alone_.

"Mother…"

If only her mother was here. She was a quiet sanctuary within this vulgar environment; her beacon that helped her stay grounded. She was the first to show her what love was, from what small time she had with her. Hinata couldn't further regret not indulging in it any more than she had back then. Those days were lost, and she could now only reflect and reminisce. That was her true tragedy: learning what love was, then losing it just as fast as the experience seemed to have lasted.

Perhaps if she never knew what love was, the heavy rain that came would have been bearable.

Unconsciously, her feet paced in a seemingly random direction. The wet sound of her bare feet meeting the puddles were lost while her mind stalled.

Wherever she drifted to, surely, it would be better than her hell.

⁂

The patter of light rain echoed in the room.

Her eyelids flew apart and she sat up straight. She tried to look around to assess her situation but couldn't due to her hazy vision.

From what little sense she had, she realized she was in an unfamiliar setting. The girl blinked a few times to clear the blurry images and was surprised at the throbbing sensation in her temples. Her eyes stung, for some reason.

After blinking a couple more times, she discovered several calligraphy pieces stuck on the wall with kunai and stacks of similar work stacked and scattered across the hardwood floor. The smell of ink was almost suffocating, and she had to breathe through her mouth for a moment to get used to the odour.

What caught her eye in the room was a boy sitting in the center, with his back faced towards her. His shockingly bright blonde hair was duller than what it used to be. There were even tufts of what seemed to be _red_ hair, but the girl dismissed it as a trick from the orange light that came from the window—probably the light of the setting sun. It seemed like he was writing something with an ink brush. She recognized him to be Naruto, of course…but then, she remembered…

…_What has she done?_

She wanted to run away. Why has she brought her problems to the one person she used to seek escape with? Was she really that weak? She showed him a side of her she desperately tried to hide from the world, under the persona of her usual shy, quiet self. Has she truly broken to the point where her façade broke down completely?

Has she finally lost herself?

As irrational as it was, she moved, trying to get off the couch as discretely as possible. She needed to escape. Again.

Unfortunately, the boy's sensitive ears detected her slight movement and his entire posture stiffened. Hinata felt her breathe hitch while staring at his back. What would he say? How would he react? Will he come to hate her?

The girl and boy waited, expecting each other to do something.

To both of their surprise, the boy spoke first.

"I'm sorry."

It made no sense. He shouldn't have had to do anything to do with her. He was the one that put the wall between them, despite her persistence in trying to get him to open up. He had no reason to care. Yet, he _apologized_.

"Why?" she could only question.

The boy shifted his position around to face the girl this time. They studied each other's expressions carefully, and the girl could tell that the boy hasn't slept in a very long time. His eyes were completely devoid of any life, and his drooping eyes threatened to cause the boy to drop where he sat at any point in time. His face looked dangerously pale, as if the boy hasn't been eating enough food for a long time.

The boy took his time to choose his words before breaking the stagnant silence.

"I…don't know."

They stared at each other again with difficult expressions.

The silence continued.

Hinata didn't know why, but she started crying again. This emotion was repetitive. She felt uncomfortable just by being herself. The confusion and uncertainty of what was happening was sickening. She began sniffling, and her tiny hiccups were accompanied by the slow dripping of water in the background.

Her doll-like demeanor crumbled so easily. Now, she seemed so…_human_.

While watching her small breakdown, Naruto stood up and shifted closer to her. As he watched her cry, he couldn't help but feel entranced by her displaying her emotions. She was an enigma that he wished to explore. How could she be so similar to him…yet so _different_? He knew these emotions all too well, but how could to the girl express them so…_openly_ when he struggled to show any?

Hinata noticed his approach and tried to hide her face in her arms. It seemed like she still had some shame left in her, at least.

The boy, however, wanted to see more. He reached out to her arms, trying to pull them aside to take a look closer at her face, but something—or rather, _someone_—interrupted him.

_"**Leave her be."**_

And then he collapsed. Both the exhaustion and stress seemed to have caught up to him from his marathon of sleepless nights. Unfortunately, he accidently seemed to have slumped on top of Hinata, pushing her down against the couch.

The girl paused her sniffling and was surprised at the light presence that was on top of her. She quickly realized that the boy was laying against her, sleeping. His serene, snoozing face filled her vision, and she felt something inside her loosen from that moment.

To her, nothing else in the world mattered, and she chose to hug him, bringing the boy closer to herself. She didn't know why, but it felt like the only thing to do. They both suffered hardships that neither could truly understand, but surely each could relate to. To her, she felt that they could use each other, in a way.

While letting the now calm atmosphere take over her nerves, she let her eyes droop and let his warmth fill her cold body. Whatever comfort she could find, she needed. She finally let herself doze off while tightening her grip around the boy's body.

Perhaps this could be her new sanctuary.

Through the small opening of the heavy curtains, the mellow glow of the sunset dimmed away.

⁂

**A/N: **I'm so sorry for the late release. I had the entire scenario for this chapter planned before releasing the previous chapter, but unfortunately, I just kept losing motivation to actually write it. Coming home from work everyday, tired, isn't really the right mood to write for me.

I played around with the weather this chapter to create some pathetic fallacy and sense of chronology. Hopefully it wasn't annoying to read/figure out.

Thank you for reading, and please review.


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